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ot-i 



THE BIOGRAPHICAL 
E^CYCLOPEDIA^;^ 
OF NEW JERSEY 



BEING AN ACCOUNT OF THE LIVES OF INDIVID- 
UALS WHO HAVE CONTRIBUTED TO THE AD- 
VANCEMENT OF THE INTELLECTUAL, MORAL AND 
MATERIAL INTERESTS OF THE COMMONWEALTH 




EDITED BY 



SAMUEL F. BIGELOW, A. M., and GEORGE J. HAGAR 



NATIONAL AMERICANA SOCIETY 

154 EAST TWENTY-THIRD STREET 
NEW YORK CITY 




J 9-? ^^/ 



IN this biographical cyclo- 
H pedia of New Jersey are 
- presented complete, ac- 



curate and carefully prepared 
sketches of citizens of reputation 
and usefulness who have partici- 
pated in the development of the 
professions, industries, com- 
merce and politics of the State. 
The purpose of the work is to 
record and perpetuate in the 
broadest sense New Jersey civil- 
ization through authentic life 
histories of those who have had 
part in its progress; and it is 
the belief of the editors and 
publishers of the work that this 
purpose has been fully achieved. 



/ 



INDEX 



PAGE 

AcKERMAN, Ernest R 230 

Alden, James Gamble 185 

Alexander, Archibald Stevens. . . . 227 

Allen, Charles J 20 

Allen, William F 82 

Archibald, Arthur B 37 

AsMus, Ernst George 177 

Astley, George Buckham 240 

Atwater, Edward Sanford 135 

AuF der Heide, Oscar L 331 

Badgley, Theodore Johnson 76 

Baker, James 315 

Barbour, Colonel William 22 

Battin, Sylvester S 96 

Beidelman, William Henry 342 

Beldon, Samuel White 296 

Bentley, Peter, Sr 274 

Bentley, Peter, Second 276 

Bentley, Peter, Third 277 

Bernhard, John Albert 243 

Biertumpfel, Albert H 241 

Bigelow Family, The 30 

BiGELow, Moses 31 

Bigelow, Samuel Fowler 33 

BiGGS, Charles H 296 

Black, Charles C 161 

Blair. John Albert 14 

Blair, John Insley 349 

Bonnett, Peter 100 

Booth, Richard W 120 

Braun, Max 17 

Bray, Andrew W 191 

Bray, James A 250 



PAGE 

Brierley, Joshua 349 

Briggs, Frank O 136 

Bross, Martin 343 

Buermann, William iii 

Bumsted, William G 203 

Cahill, John Francis 204 

Cairns, Oliver M 234 

Callaghan, Joseph Hansbury 175 

Calvert, James Charles 338 

Campbell, Charles Geddes 140 

Carey, Robert 33 

Chandler, David Dodd 338 

Clark, James Henry 309 

Cleveland, Grover 26 

Clynes, Wellsworth Knight 211 

Cobb Family, The 268 

Cobb, John A 272 

Cobb, William Ripley 273 

Collins, Gilbert 106 

Condict, Henry V 151 

Congleton, Jerome Taylor 244 

Conlon, Owen F 246 

Coult, Joseph 145 

Cowles, Elijah Strong 21 

Crane, Elvin Williamson 154 

Crane, Joseph Spencer 158 

Cross, George Ward 292 

Cross, Joseph 36 

Currie, Mungo J 207 

Cutler, Augustus W 179 

Dalrymple, Alfred N 131 

Davis, William Jerome 262 

Day, Charles P 322 



(i) 



V 



INDEX 



PAGE 

Day, Charles Thompson 193 

Decker, Charles M 156 

Demarest, Abraham S. D 123 

Desch, John 232 

Dimond, William 15° 

Dixon, Jonathan 48 

DoDD, Amzi 58 

Dodge, Frederick U 227 

Dohertv, Henry 345 

DoREMus, Philip 3^3 

Drayton, Albert Irving 65 

Dryden, John Fairfield 208 

DuBois, Frank G 326 

Earle, Frank Hasbrouck 74 

Eberhardt, Ulrich 56 

Edwards, Guy 54 

Egner, Frederick William 99 

Egner, Henry William 52 

Egner, Henry William, Jr 79 

Emery, John R 125 

Ern, Max Anthony 121 

Ernst, Myron Chandler 300 

Everett, Russell M 108 

Fearey, Frederick Tysoe no 

Feldman, Julius 196 

Finelli, Anthony R 129 

Fitzsimmons, John F 346 

Flemming, James 340 

Fort, John Franklin 293 

Frambach, Frederick 201 

Frelinghuysen, Frederick 12 

Frelinghuysen, Frederick T 5 

Frey, Albert 257 

Froelich, Joseph Conon 190 

Fuller, Charles W 38 

Gaffeney, Charles H 195 

Gano, Willet Bird 141 

Garretson, Abram Quick 140 

Garrison, Lindley M 120 

German, Scott 129 



PAGE 

Gibson, Theodore George 206 

Gile, Francis A 214 

G/lmour, L. D. Howard 198 - 

Gleeson, George Henry 109 

Gray, Edward W 182 

Gray, George R 234 

Gray, John Walter. 178 

• Greenfield, William 105 

Griggs, John William 43 

Haight, Thomas Griffith 119 

Hall, Isaac A 151 

Halsey, Silas Condit 102 

Hardin, John R 245 

Harrigan, William 348 

Hartshorne, Charles Hopkins.... 192 

Haussling, Francis Reynolds 153 

Haussling, Jacob 69 

Hawkesworth, Robert Wright.... 215 

Heck, John W 73 

Heller, Carl G loi 

Helm, John Edward 301 

Hemsath, John 341 

Hensler, Joseph, Jr 174 

Herold, Herman C. H 247 

Herrmann, Louis Edward 330 

HoRART, Garret Augustus 45 

Hoffman, Frederick L 147 

Hopping, William Franklin 132 

Howe, George Rowland 103 

Howell, Benjamin Franklin 114 

Howell. James E 133 

HuEGEL, John William 337 

Illingworth, John 184 

Jagle, George Washington 42 

James, Peter H 344 

Jay, Frederick 125 

Johnson, William Mindred 24 

Jones, Charles 136 

Joy, Edmund Lewis 126 



«. 



INDEX 



in 



PAGE 

Kalisch, Isidor 90 

Kalisch, Samuel 93 

Kearns, William Joseph 205 

Kelsey, Clarence 314 

King, Benjamin 85 

KiNKEAD, Eugene Francis 261 

Kinney, Thomas Talmadge 305 

Kinney, William Burnet 303 

Kinney, William Burnet 306 

Kirkpatrick, Andrew 18 

Kirkpatrick, Andrew 281 

Kirkpatrick, J. Bayard 282 

Kirkpatrick, Littleton 143 

Knight, George W 224 

Kraemer, Charles Frederic 138 

Kroehl, Anthony G., Jr 299 

Krueger, Gottfried 315 

Lambert, George H 330 

Lane, John W 222 

Lanning, William M 176 

Laughlin, Frank P 254 

Leonard, Clarence Augustus 337 

Lewis, Vivian M 226 

Linderman, Henry Richard 62 

Long, Frank Rowland 89 

Lord, William Adgate 61 

Lowrey, James Henry 326 

Lum, Charles Mandred 332 

McCarter, Thomas Nesbitt 247 

McCarter, Uzal H 13 

McDermott, Franklin Pierce 223 

McGraw, James H 321 

McGuinness, Patrick J 288 

McIntyre, David A 133 

McMahon, Alotsius 251 

MacQuoid, Charles Wight 170 

Magee, Eugene Van A 339 

Mandeville, J. Arthur 212 

Manners Family, The 94 

Martin, William Parmenter 66 

Mason, Charles Meeks 70 



page 

Mason, Frederic Gooding 225 

Mattia, Richard F 302 

Mead, Robert Dodd 68 

Meltzer, Mark Carl 186 

Merz, Henry 306 

Michael, Oscar 320 

Mitchell, Arthur H 108 

Mockridge, Oscar Bromley 107 

Morehouse, Monte T 331 

Murphy, James J 97 

Newman, Jacob L 181 

Nichols, Walter S 112 

NoRTHRUP, Simon Phillips 220 

Nott, Francis Asbury, Jr 189 

Odell, William Pitt 282 

Oelkers, John B 311 

Orton, James Douglass 114 

Osborne, Harry V 221 

Owen, James 308 

Parker, Charles W 38 

Parker, Cortlandt 49 

Parker, James 160 

Parker, John 168 

Parker, Richard Wayne 54 

Parry, William Haines 159 

Pedrick, Albert Clearman 55 

Perry, James 252 

Pitney, John Oliver Halsted 143 

Pitney, Mahlon 240 

Plaut, Louis 158 

Pomerehne, Henry 169 

Potter, Henry Albert 199 

Price, Edward Livingston 134 

Price, Rodman McCauley 318 

Prieth, Benedict 228 

Queen, John Wahl 327 

Rand, Jasper Raymond 164 

Rand, Jasper Raymond 187 

Reeves, Harry Norman 88 

Reynolds, John 298 



IV 



INDEX 



PAGE 

RiKER, Adrian i6 

RoniNsoN, Benjamin A 149 

RoDEN, Hugh Patrick 255 

RoDER, Paul William 260 

Roe, Charles J 128 

Roe, Isaac Field 118 

Rosinger, August W 189 

Ryan, Patrick H 165 

Sackett, Clarence 162 

Sanford, Joseph B 288 

SCATTERGOOD, ClAUDE EdWARD 243 

ScHEERER, William 8i 

SCHLESINGER, LOUIS 7I 

SCHREIIIOFER, JaCOB I97 

SCHREITMUELLER, HeNRY 256 

Scudder, Edward Wallace 173 

Scudder, Wallace McIlvaine 183 

Sewell, William J 219 

Seymour, Frederick 267 

Shackleton, James H 98 

Sherrerd, Morris Robeson 284 

Simon, Herman 86 

Simon, Robert 87 

Simpson, Alexander 153 

Smith, Hugh 80 

Smith, John Edward 41 

Smith, Joseph F 334 

Smith, Lewis Michael 122 

Smith, Seth B 334 

Snape, James 157 

Sommer, Frank H 294 

Speer, William H 335 

Stevexms, Alfred Francis 317 

Stevens, Edwin Augustus 236 

Stevens, Richard 259 

Stillman, Frank Moody 130 

Stockton, John Potter 278 

Story, Douglas D. T 198 



page 

Stuhr, William Sebastian 323 

Sullivan, Mark A 319 

Taylor, George W 202 

Terhune, Robert Spencer 333 

Thompson, Charles Dederer 249 

Thurston, Charles Baldwin 253 

TiTswoRTH, Caleb Sheppard 290 

TiTSwoRTH, Charles Grant 291 

Traphagen, Henry 146 

Trimble, James McNeil 346 

Tumulty, Joseph P 320 

Turton, William Eugene 258 

Ulbricht, Marcus 229 

Varno, Auguste Joseph 221 

Voorhees, Foster M 109 

Voorhees, Willard P 233 

Wakelee, Edmund W 233 

Ward, Elias Sayre 325 

Ward, Leslie Dodd 231 

Warren, George L 297 

Weidmann, Jacob 142 

Wentworth, Fred Wesley 335 

Werts, George Theodore 194 

Wiley, William H 216 

Wilson, Samuel F 329 

Winner, William Wilberforce .... 116 

Wittpenn, Henry Otto 217 

Wolber, Joseph Gustave 220 

Woodland, Theodore Mandeville. . 300 

Wright, Edward H 35 

Wright, Harry 218 

Wright, William 34 

Wrightson, James Thomas 137 

Young, David 194 

Young, Edward Faitoute Condit. .. 166 

Young, Henry 328 

Young, Henry, Jr 329 



The Biographical Cyclopedia 
OF New Jersey 



FREDERICK T. FRELINGHUYSEN 

NEWARK 



FREDERICK THEODORE FREL- 
INGHUYSEN, who rose to the dis- 
tinction of being Secretary of State in Pres- 
ident Arthur's cabinet, was born in the vil- 
lage of Millstone, in the County of Somer- 
set, State of New Jersey, on the 4th day of 
August, 1817. 

His honored ancestry, distinguished for 
piety, eloquence and patriotism, traces 
back, in direct line, to the Rev. Theodoras 
Jacobus Frelinghuysen, who was born in 
Holland and was there educated and or- 
dained to the ministry of the Reformed 
Dutch Church. In the year 1720, this an- 
cestor emigrated to America, in obedi- 
ence to a call from the Dutch Churches of 
America to the Classis of Amsterdam. In 
his ministry in this country he occupied 
almost the entire County of Somerset, 
with parts of Middlesex and Hunterdon, 
as the field of his missionary labors. He 
was laborious, devoted, and successful. 
His motto, found inscribed upon a small 
collection of his sermons printed in 1773, 
was, — Laiidciii iion qiicro : culpain noii 
timeo (I ask not praise ; I fear not blame.) 
In a successful ministry of more than a 
quarter of a century he stamped upon the 
religious faith and character of the Hol- 
land inhabitants of Somerset County an 

(5) 



impress which is traceable to the genera- 
tions of the present day. 

His undaunted attitude toward the Co- 
lonial Courts of Magistracy regarding the 
encroachments of the Church of England 
upon the Reformed Dutch faith and polity 
was characteristic of the deep spirit of 
religious freedom with which he was in- 
spired, and which he transmitted to his 
descendants. He had five sons ordained 
to the ministry and two daughters who 
married ministers. 

The second of the five sons was Rev. 
John Frelinghuysen, who was educated 
and ordained in Holland and succeeded to 
the labors of his father in 1750, having 
his residence in Somerville. He estab- 
lished a preparatory and divinity school, 
which became the nucleus of a college and 
from which, through one of his pupils, the 
Rev. Dr. Hardenburg, was evolved 
Queen's College, now Rutgers, of which 
Dr. Hardenburg became the first presi- 
dent. 

The Rev. John Frelinghuysen was a man 
of brilliant gifts, and was popular and suc- 
cessful as a preacher. He died suddenly 
in 1754, leaving a wife, who was the daugh- 
ter of a wealthy and distinguished East 
India merchant residing at Amsterdam. 



BIOGRAPHICAL CYCLOPEDIA 



Her name was Dinah Van Berg. She was 
a very remarkable and highly gifted Chris- 
tian woman and subsequently, as the wife 
of Dr. Hardenburg, was known in all the 
Dutch churches of Holland and America. 

The son of Rev. John Frelinghuysen 
and Dinah Van Berg was General Fred- 
erick Frelinghuysen, of Revolutionary 
fame, who was born in Somerville, April 
I3i 1753- He graduated at Princeton in 
the class of 1770 and was a classmate of 
President James Madison and S. Stanhope 
Smith, D. D., LL. D., who later became 
president of Princeton. He was admitted 
to the bar of New Jersey, became a mem- 
ber of the Provincial Congress of New 
Jersey, of the Committee of Safety, and 
was a member of the Continental Con- 
gress at different times. He was captain 
of a corps of artillery in the Revolutionary 
War and took part in the battles of Tren- 
ton and Monmouth. He was afterwards 
made major-general of the militia in the 
Whiskey Rebellion, and was a member of 
the United States Senate from New Jer- 
sey, from 1793 to 1796. He died in 1804, 
highly honored and eulogized. He left 
three sons. General John Frelinghuysen, 
Theodore Frelinghuysen, and Frederick 
Frelinghuysen, — all men of public distinc- 
tion and high repute. 

General John Frelinghuysen was a grad- 
uate of Queen's College, was frequently 
a member of the State Council, and under 
the old constitution was popular in poli- 
tics. Military in taste, he commanded a 
regiment at Sandy Hook in the War of 
1812, and in the absence of the chaplain 
officiated as such himself. He was for 
years surrogate of the County of Somer- 
set and held numerous private and pub- 
lic trusts. 

Theodore Frelinghuysen, the second son 
of General Frederick Frelinghuysen, was 
born in Franklin Township, Somerset 
County, New Jersey, March 28, 1787. He 
received his education at the College of 
New Jersey, at Princeton, and was grad- 
uated therefrom in 1804. Choosing, as 



did his father, the law for his profession, 
he entered, as a student, the office of 
Richard Stockton at Princeton, where he 
pursued his studies until 1808, when he 
was admitted to the bar. In 181 1 he be- 
came a counselor, and in 1817 a sergeant- 
at-law. Having chosen Newark, New Jer- 
sey, as his residence, he removed there, 
and, in 1809 married Charlotte, daughter 
of Archibald Mercer, Esq. During the 
thirty years in which he remained in prac- 
tice he was fully employed, and in most 
of the more important causes that arose 
in different parts of the State was sure to 
be retained. His eloquence as an orator 
and his excellent judgment as a counselor 
brought clients to him from every direc- 
tion. In 1817 a legislature opposed to him 
in politics elected him in joint meeting 
attorney-general of the State, and by re- 
election retained him in that office until 
1829, when he was chosen a senator of the 
United States. Earlier he had declined 
the office of justice of the Supreme Court,' 
tendered to him in 1826. Not only on 
the floor of the Senate, but in its commit- 
tees, his abilities were unquestioned and 
the influence which he there exerted was 
felt many years after he had left it. The 
first important matter on which he ad- 
dressed the Senate was the bill for the re- 
moval of the Indians to lands west of the 
Mississippi River. His object on this oc- 
casion was to defeat the bill and his speech 
is described as one of great power and 
eloquence. He also took an active part 
in the discussion of the Pension Bill, the 
President's Protest, the Force Bill, the 
removal of the Government deposits from 
the United States Bank, the Compromise 
tariff, etc. His Senatorial term expired in 
1835 ^"d he resumed the labors of his pro- 
fession. 

In 1836 the town of Newark was ad- 
vanced to the importance of a city. In 
the following year Mr. Frelinghuysen was 
elected as its mayor, and in 1838 was re- 
elected, and would without doubt have 
been continued in that office had he not 




i 



3E-n -rzrP.V.. t?A.3PER & BROTHEaS 



BIOGRAPHICAL CYCLOPEDIA 



been chosen, in 1839, Chancellor of the 
University of the City of New York. This 
appointment he accepted believing, per- 
haps, that in his advancing years its du- 
ties would be more agreeable than those 
of the profession in which he had so long 
and so arduously toiled. He had passed 
scarcely five years in this retirement from 
the conflicts of the forum, when, in 1844, 
he was called upon by the Whig party to 
be their candidate for vice-president of 
the United States, with Henry Clay, their 
great leader, as candidate for the presi- 
dency. It was a memorable political strug- 
gle, but not even the names of those two 
most popular men could bring victory to 
their party. The principles which they 
represented were, however, subsequently 
triumphant. The contest over, Mr. Fre- 
linghuysen continued to pursue the even 
tenor of his way, performing heartily his 
daily duties, as well as those imposed 
upon him as president of the American 
Board of Commissioners for Foreign Mis- 
sions and also as president of the Ameri- 
can Bible Society. In 1850 he was chosen 
president of Rutgers College, located in 
New Brunswick, New Jersey, not far from 
the spot in which he first drew breath, 
and though still a vigorous man, it is easy 
to believe that he looked not forward to 
many more years on earth, and that so 
near to the place where they first began 
it would be appropriate to have them end. 
He accepted the position, and twelve years 
later, on the 12th of April, 1861, his dis- 
tinguished and useful career came to a 
close. 

Frederick Frelinghuysen, the youngest 
of the three sons of General Frederick 
Frelinghuysen, was born in Millstone, 
New Jersey, November 7, 1788. He, too, 
was educated at Princeton and being ad- 
mitted to the bar commenced practice in 
his native town of Millstone, where he rap- 
idly acquired a lucrative practice and es- 
tablished a brilliant reputation. Though 
suddenly stricken by death in his thirty- 
second year, he is remembered as a nat- 



ural orator, with a fervid imagination, a 
buoyant temperament, and as possessing 
great power over juries. He died sud- 
denly, in 1820, leaving surviving him his 
young widow, daughter of Peter B. Du- 
mont, Esq., who owned a valuable plan- 
tation on the south bank of the Raritan 
River, near Somerville, and leaving also 
three daughters and two sons, the younger 
son being Frederick Theodore Freling- 
huysen, the late Secretary of State in Pres- 
ident Arthur's cabinet. Young Frederick 
was only three years of age when his fath- 
er died, and immediately thereafter he was 
adopted by his uncle, Theodore, and taken 
to live with him in Newark. It is espe- 
cially satisfactory to record that, inherit- 
ing his father's natural gifts, his eloquent 
speech and fervid emotions, and partak- 
ing of the refinement and comeliness of 
his mother, whose heart was ever filled 
with ambitious aspirations for the honor- 
able career of her son, the loss of his fath- 
er could not have been more fully com- 
pensated than it was by the care and cus- 
tody of the little boy in the guardianship 
of his distinguished uncle, who, having no 
children of his own, lavished upon him all 
the means that could be employed in his 
training and culture. His preparatory ed- 
ucation alternated between the academy at 
Newark and the academy at Somerville. 
He entered Rutgers College as a sopho- 
more and graduated in the class of 1836, 
a class conspicuous for names that sub- 
sequently became eminent. While a stu- 
dent in college Mr. Frelinghuysen's pre- 
possessing personal appearance, his tall, 
slender figure, neatly attired, his hand- 
some, glowing face, together with a dig- 
nified and manly bearing, made him singu- 
larly attractive. John F. Hegeman, a class- 
mate, speaking of him at this time, says, 
"His natural talents were of a high or- 
der, but he had no specialties in his stud- 
ies, no genius for the higher mathematics, 
no special fondness for the physical sci- 
ences. While his standing was good in 
the classics and in the general studies 



8 



BIOGRAPHICAL CYCLOPEDIA 



prescribed, it was evident that he enjoyed 
most the branches of mental and moral 
philosophy, logic and rhetoric. Oratory 
had a charm for him. He seemed to have 
a prescience of the path in life he was des- 
tined to pursue, and all his studies were 
subordinated to that end." 

Upon graduation Mr. Frelinghuysen en- 
tered at once upon the study of law in the 
office of his uncle Theodore, at Newark. 
The advantages and training which he re- 
ceived here were of exceptional value. Af- 
ter three years of study the subject of this 
memoir was admitted to the bar as an 
attorney and three years later, in 1842, he 
was admitted as counselor. At this junc- 
ture two important events in his history 
were to be recorded, — the public profes- 
sion of his religious faith, by which he 
formed ecclesiastical relations with the 
church of his ancestors, the Reformed 
Dutch Church, and secondly, his marriage 
to Miss Matilda Griswold, the accom- 
plished daughter of George A. Griswold, a 
wealthy merchant of New York City. 
These two relations, the Church and the 
home, ever afterward held the heart of 
Mr. Frelinghuysen and were his chief joy 
to the day of his death. Mr. Frelinghuy- 
sen stood on high vantage ground at the 
very start of his professional career in 
Newark, succeeding to the office and li- 
brary of his uncle, whither the old clients 
of the elder Frelinghuysen were accus- 
tomed to resort for professional services. 
Now that his uncle had become chancellor 
of the University of New York, the young 
attorney was welcomed as the representa- 
tive successor of the venerable jurist and 
senator, loved and revered for so many 
years ; and he received the sympathy and 
support of the business men, — the mer- 
chants and the manufacturers of Newark. 
A host of influential friends gathered 
around him. The religious classes cher- 
ished an afifection for his name; the New- 
ark bar took him into their special favor, 
and the whole community bestowed upon 
him their plaudits and good will. Besides, 



the helping hand and warm recognition of 
such men as Chief-Justice Hornblower, 
Asa Whitehead, Elias Van Arsdale, Gov. 
Pennington, John P. Jackson, Oliver S. 
Halstead and many other leading lawyers, 
were extended to him. He was soon ap- 
pointed City Attorney, an ofiice bringing 
him in contact with the industrial classes 
and securing for him a general interest in 
the government and business of the city. 
His early appointment as the retained 
counsel of the New Jersey Central Rail- 
road Company and the Morris Canal and 
Banking Company provided a rare field 
for the development and exhibition of his 
legal capabilities. Required to appear be- 
fore courts and juries in different coun- 
ties, in hotly contested suits at law, meet- 
ing as antagonists the strongest counsel 
in the State and abroad, and in the highest 
courts of the State, within a few years he 
stood within the foremost rank of the New 
Jersey bar. He became not only an elo- 
quent advocate capable of swaying juries, 
but an able lawyer, preparing and conduct- 
ing most important cases with strategic 
skill and eminent success. A formidable 
antagonist in any cause, civil or criminal, 
his practice became lucrative and envia- 
ble. It is especially noteworthy that in 
achieving his eminence at the bar he re- 
lied not more upon his eloquence and 
genius than upon the unwearied diligence 
with which he studied and toiled. 

Patriotism was a strong characteristic 
inherited by Mr. Frelinghuysen, and he 
kept well read in the politics of his State 
and country. He was frequently called 
to address large political gatherings. As 
far back as 1840 he was one of the speak- 
ers at the Whig State Convention, at Tren- 
ton, in the presidential campaign of that 
memorable year. Having acquired em- 
inent legal distinction, and with an unbrok- 
en line of ancestry standing high, in the 
annals of honorable official position, his 
ambition to follow in the same path was 
a logical sequence. It is recorded that the 
only instance in which he failed to obtain 



BIOGRAPHICAL CYCLOPEDIA 



the appointment he desired was in 1857, 
when he was a candidate for the attorney- 
generalship of New Jersey, ex-Senator 
William L. Dayton, who failed in reelec- 
tion as United States Senator being the 
successful candidate. But in 1861, Attor- 
ney-General Dayton being nominated by 
President Lincoln as minister to France, 
Governor Olden, who had in the mean- 
time been elected governor, appointed Mr. 
Frelinghuysen to the vacant place. In 

1866 when the term of the office of at- 
torney-general expired, Marcus L. Ward, 
who was then governor, renominated Mr. 
Frelinghuysen for a new term in that of- 
fice, which he filled with eminent ability. 
It was the stormy period of the Civil War, 
and the legislation of that day demanded 
much special labor, attention and official 
assistance. During this trying period he 
spent the most of his time at Trenton in 
discharging the duties of his office and 
bravely sustaining the governor in defend- 
ing the Union. The years which covered 
the war of the Rebellion were preem- 
inently an educational period, — one that 
tested and demanded the profoundest ap- 
plication of the minds of public men to 
comprehend the principles of civil govern- 
ment and to solve the hard problems that 
rose out of the attempted secession of 
States and the question of the rights of 
freedom. No one learned more rapidly and 
thoroughly in this school for making 
statesmen than did Attorney-General Fre- 
linghuysen, who had already become one 
of the most popular political speakers in 
his State, being well read in history, and 
the politics of the country, and capable of 
electrifying the masses when he appeared 
before them. Thus prepared, upon the 
death of William Wright of Newark, 
United States Senator from New Jersey 
in 1866, Governor Ward appointed Mr. 
Frelinghuysen as Mr. Wright's succes- 
sor, and he took his seat in the Senate in 
December of that year. In the winter of 

1867 he was elected by the legislature to 
fill the unexpired term of Mr. Wright, 



which ended March 4, 1869. At the ex- 
piration of his term, the legislature of New 
Jersey was Democratic, but Mr. Freling- 
huysen had taken such high rank in the 
Senate and had been so able and eloquent 
a supporter of President Grant's admin- 
istration, that in 1870 he was nominated 
by President Grant and confirmed by the 
senate as Minister to England. This hon- 
orable position, which the most ambitious 
public men have so fondly coveted, Mr. 
Frelinghuysen, singularly enough, de- 
clined. The reason, which did not appear 
until after his death, throws a beautiful 
sidelight upon his intense devotion to the 
purity and simplicity of his home life. It 
is recorded that he stated in private con- 
versation that he declined "because Mrs. 
Frelinghuysen was opposed to exposing 
her children to the influence of court life 
which the mission would involve." And 
he yielded to her wish. In 1871, however, 
there again occurred in the Senate a va- 
cancy to be filled from New Jersey for a 
full term, and the legislature was Repub- 
lican. The public eye was at once directed 
toward Mr. Frelinghuysen, and after a 
spirited struggle in caucus, he was elected 
by the legislature for a term of six years, 
from 1871. 

It was in the Senate that Mr. Freling- 
huysen added the choicest laurels to his 
fame. The Senate chamber was admir- 
ably adapted to his tastes and qualifica- 
tions. Versed in the science of law and 
civil government, possessed of oratorial 
graces, with keen and skillful dialectic 
power in debate, of fine presence and dig- 
nity of action, conscious of integrity, 
nerved with indomitable courage blended 
with faultless Christian courtesy, with an 
inborn patriotism, and spurred on by an- 
cestral prestige, he entered at once into 
the honors of the Senate and became a 
prominent and leading member of that 
august body. He was there during the 
reconstruction period, when every phase 
of legislation required the profoundest 
statesmanship, but he was both ready and 



lO 



BIOGRAPHICAL CYCLOPEDIA 



ripe, diligent, assiduous and watchful and 
alert to grapple every new and important 
question that arose. As a member of the 
Judiciary Committee, the Finance Com- 
mittee, the Committee on Naval Affairs, 
the Committee on Claims and on Rail- 
roads, and as chairman of the Committee 
on Agriculture, he was charged with a 
varied and often perplexing responsibil- 
ity. During his career in the Senate he 
took part in the impeachment trial of 
President Johnson, and his judicial 
opinion, filed in the public record of that 
court, was brief, clear and convincing. He 
took a prominent part in the debate on the 
Washington Treaty, and also in the French 
Arms controversy, and he raised his voice 
emphatically against polygamy as engraft- 
ed upon the body politic of Utah. The 
measure to return to Japan the balance of 
the indemnity fund not used for the pay- 
ment of American claims, though just and 
honorable, was not carried until after a 
prolonged struggle, and the success of this 
measure was due to Senator Frelinghuy- 
sen's efforts. He introduced the bill to 
restore a gold currency and he took charge 
of Mr. Sumner's bill for reconstruction, 
after the Massachusetts statesman had be- 
come unable to look after it. It is impos- 
sible to enter into details concerning even 
Senator Frelinghuysen's more notable 
speeches through which he made a brilliant 
record for himself and his State. He 
voted and spoke invariably against the 
inundation of the flood of bills for relief 
which were founded upon claims of South- 
ern Loyalists during the war and which, it 
carried to their logical consequences, 
would have swamped the national treas- 
ury. He spoke on the .Su])pkmentary Re- 
struction bill in 1868 with great eloquence 
and force and with a radicalism born of 
sagacious conversation. The situation 
was a critical one. The Constitutional 
amendments formed the background, and 
the State governments of the South must 
be reorganized. The white population 
refused to recognize at the same time the 



rights guaranteed to the freedmen by the 
Constitutional amendments. The alterna- 
tive on the part of Congress was to confer 
on the freedmen full citizenship, — the right 
to vote and to be voted for. Senator Fre- 
linghuysen, always cautious and conserva- 
tive, upon this question became as radical 
as any Senator on the Republican side, and 
brilliantly and with rare logic and force 
covering in his arguments both the "sov- 
ereignty" of the nation and the constitu- 
tionality of the reconstruction laws, not 
only kept pace with the advance of public 
sentiment, but sagaciously stood for a gov- 
ernment which should be the same in 
every section. A change in the political 
party in control of the State retired Sen- 
ator Frelingliuyscn frcjin the Senate at 
the expiration of his term, March 4, 1877; 
but he was not left long unemployed in 
the public service of his country. Upon 
the tragic death of President Garfield, 
Vice-President Arthur succeeded to the 
presidency under embarrassing circum- 
stances. His own party, irritated and dis- 
tracted, extended to him meager sympa- 
thy. LTnder these trying circumstances, he 
invited e.x-Senator Frelinghuysen to take 
the first place in his cabinet, as Secretary 
of State. It would have been difficult for 
him to place at his right hand a secretary 
more qualified for that high position than 
Mr. Frelinghuysen. The foreign policy 
of the administration was correspondingly 
pacific and honorable, conciliating but 
firm. In negotiating international trea- 
ties, taking in the scope of the subject mat- 
ter, anticipating contingencies liable to 
arise in the far future, adjusting the con- 
flicting interests of industries, revenues and 
commerce of nations. Secretary Freling- 
huysen sustained the heaviest burden of 
his life. The two treaties which caused 
him most exhaustive labor in their gen- 
eral provisions were probably the Span- 
ish Treaty, which President Arthur sub- 
mitted for ratification near the close of 
his term, and the great treaty involving 
the building of the Nicaragua Canal. Both 



BIOGRAPHICAL CYCLOPEDIA 



II 



failed of ratification. The preparation and 
procurement of the latter international 
document will ever remain a monument 
to Secretary Frelinghuysen's skill, indus- 
try and statesmanship. 

As in public life, so in private life, Sec- 
retary Frelinghuysen was a model man. 
At home he was the center of the affec- 
tions of his family ; in the church which 
was his supreme delight, he was a pillar; 
on the platform of religious associations, 
at Sunday-school and Bible-society anni- 
versaries he was from early manhood a 
familiar, popular and eloquent speaker. At 
the time of his death he was president 
of the American Bible Society. The re- 
ligious element in his character was posi- 
tive and of a high type. A close student 
of the Bible, reposing in the orthodox 
faith of his fathers, he was yet free from 
cant and narrowness and preserved 
throughout his public as in his private 
career, the pre-eminent Christian char- 
acter. 

The broader fields of his activity did not 
preclude his interest in and sympathy with 
the lesser and more local institutions. 
Schools, public libraries, young men's as- 
sociations, received his sympathy and as- 
sistance, and in higher education he was 
ever mindful of his Alma-mater, serving 
on her board of trustees for thirty-four 
years from 1851. He seldom addressed lit- 
erary societies, a notable exception being 
an oration before the literary societies of 
Princeton College in 1862, followed by the 
conferring upon him by that institution of 
the honorary degree of Doctor of Laws. 

March 4, 1885, upon the inauguration 
of a new administration, Mr. Frelinghuy- 
sen surrendered his seat in the cabinet to 
his successor. Secretary Bayard, laden 
with honors, and taking with him the grat- 
itude of his countrymen for his distin- 
guished services. Apparently he had en- 
joyed uniform good health, but the re- 
moval of his public official burdens re- 
vealed his bodily waste and weakness. He 
went from the Cabinet to his home in 



Newark, and to his dying bed. He was 
too ill to receive the congratulations and 
welcome of his fellow citizens, who had 
thronged his home to greet his return. He 
fell into a comatose state, and in that con- 
dition the eminent statesman lay for sev- 
eral weeks, self-conscious, but almost dead 
to the world. Day after day for many 
weeks, expressions of sympathy and anxi- 
ety were telegraphed from all parts of 
the country, and the Metropolitan press 
announced, by hourly bulletins, the re- 
ports of his attending physician. The end 
came. He died on the 20th of May, 1885, 
sixty-eight years of age, leaving a wife, 
three sons,— Frederick, George Griswold 
and Theodore, — and three daughters, — 
Miss Tillie, Miss Lucy and Mrs. John Da- 
vis. 

Public expressions of sorrow and sym- 
pathy were numerous and eulogistic. The 
press all over the country gave unwonted 
space to obituary, historical and editorial 
notices of the sad event and of the em- 
inent public citizen. The Historical So- 
ciety, then in session at Newark not only 
expressed in elaborate resolutions their 
appreciation of his public services and 
their atlmiration of high character, but 
attended the funeral in a body. The New- 
ark bar did likewise. Secretary Bayard 
of the Department of State at Washing- 
ton, the Governor of New Jersey and the 
]\L-iyor of Newark all issued official proc- 
lamations announcing his death, and be- 
sides paying high tribute to his memory, 
personally attended his funeral. Resolu- 
tions of sympathy and eulogy were 
adopted by the trustees of Rutgers Col- 
lege, by the church of which he was a 
member, by the American Bible Society, 
of which he was president, by other local 
Bible societies, and also by numerous oth- 
er public bodies, — religious, benevolent and 
political and financial, — expressing their 
love and reverence for his life, character 
and services. The obsequies were held in 
the North Reformed Church, in Newark, 
on the afternoon of the 23rd of May. The 



12 



BIOGRAPHICAL CYCLOPEDIA 



church was filled with the prominent men 
of the State, officials and private citizens, 
members and ex-members of the diplo- 
matic corps, bringing tributes of sorrow 
and praise to his memory, — a vast as- 
semblage of the great and good, mourning 
his death with sincerest grief. He was 
buried in Mt. Pleasant Cemetery. 

On the 9th of August, 1894, in the same 
city of Newark, was unveiled the statue 
erected to the memory of Frederick T. 
Frelinghuysen by a union of private cit- 
izens and the Municipal government of 
the city of his home. The statue is a 
bronze, the work of the Hartford sculp- 
tor, Karl Gerhardt. It is colossal in size, 



standing nine feet high and represents 
the subject addressing an audience, — 
an attitude so familiar to the peo- 
ple of the ctiy. The pedestal is of granite 
twelve feet high, on a broad extending 
base of the French style and was the gift 
of the city through the Common Council 
and the Board of Works, and is a rare 
specimen of the architectural skill of A. 
Wallace Brown, of Newark. Thus fitting- 
ly and enduringly does the distinguished 
citizen, the brilliant lawyer and the em- 
inent Christian statesman live before the 
eye of the rising generations as well as 
in the hearts and memory of a grateful 
people. 



FREDERICK FRELINGHUYSEN 

NEWARK 



FREDERICK FRELINGHUYSEN, a 
lawyer by profession and president 
of one of New Jersey's most widely known 
institutions was born at Newark, N. J., Sep- 
tember 30, 1848. His father was Frederick 
T. Frelinghuysen, late Secretary of State 
of the United States. The four Freling- 
huysens to whom was given the name of 
Frederick were all men of liberal educa- 
tion and members of the legal profession. 
The youngest, as already stated, was born 
in Newark, and received his prepara- 
tory education at the Newark Academy 
and subsequently entered Rutgers College, 
whence he was graduated with honors 
in 1868. He entered at once upon the 
study of law in the office of his 
father, Frederick T. Frelinghuysen. In 
1 87 1 he was admitted as an attorney, 
receiving in the same year the degree 
of A. M. In 1874 he was admitted 
as a counselor-at-law, and soon found 
himself in full practice, mainly as a 
counselor in the interests of financial in- 
stitutions, with the business and conduct 



of which he became thoroughly acquaint- 
ed. 

In 1881 on the failure of the Mechanics' 
National Bank of Newark, he was ap- 
pointed by the Comptroller of the Cur- 
rency as its receiver. In 1881 Mr. Fre- 
linghuysen was elected president of the 
Howard Savings Institution of Newark, 
one of the oldest and most substantial in- 
stitutions of the kind in New Jersey. He 
continued the head of this institution until 
he was elected president of the Mutual 
Benefit Life Insurance Company, which 
position he still retains in 1909. To this 
great establishment he gives necessarily 
a large portion of his time, but he still re- 
tains his place at the bar. He is the treas- 
urer of the Commission of the Sinking Fund 
of the City of Newark, N. J., trustee and 
treasurer of Rutgers College, also execu- 
tor and trustee for several large estates. 
Notwithstanding the cares and labors in- 
cident to his profession and to his various 
official positions, Mr. Frelinghuysen has 
never been able to overcome the love of a 
soldier's life inherited from his dis- 




mMi^kuf/k 



BIOGRAPHICAL CYCLOPEDIA 



13 



tinguished great-grandfather, General 
Frederick Frelinghuysen. As soon as he 
had reached the required age he offered 
his services as a citizen soldier and found 
place in the National Guard, to which he 
has from time to time been attached, and 
in which his career has been as brilliant 
as the career of a soldier can be in times of 
peace. What is to be most envied in him 
in this connection is the admiration and 
affectionate regard in which he is held by 
all with whom he has ever been associ- 
ated. With a title to nobility as desirable 
as any bestowed by an earthly potentate, 
he gives by his apparent forgetfulness 
thereof an irresistible charm to the sim- 
plicity of his manners and to his total in- 



difference to mere parade. As the lives 
of all his American ancestors have been 
characterized by an earnest desire to pro- 
mote the reign of righteousness and truth, 
so has been the life of Mr. Frelinghuysen, 
who takes an active part in all religious 
and charitable works and who is especially 
useful in the Reformed Church, which 
owes its early growth and prosperity to 
the first Frelinghuysen that stepped upon 
the shores of this country. 

On July 23, 1902, Mr. Frelinghuysen 
married Estelle Kinney, daughter of 
Thomas G. Kinney. They are the parents 
of three children, Frederick, Thomas Kin- 
ney and Theodore. 



UZAL H. McCARTER 



NEWARK 



UZAL H. McCARTER, financier, was 
born in Newton, Sussex County, New 
Jersey, July 5, 1861. His parents were 
the late Honorable Thomas Nesbitt Mc- 
Carter, — a biography of whom appears else- 
where in this work — and Mary Louise 
(Haggerty) McCarter. When he was four 
years of age, his parents moved to New- 
ark, where he received his preliminary edu- 
cation, preparatory to entrance to Prince- 
ton University, from which institution he 
was graduated in the class of 1882. On 
July I, of that year he entered the New 
York banking house of Kidder, Peabody 
& Co., with whom he remained for five 
years after which he engaged with the 
Lombard Investment Company of New 
York City, a corporation which dealt large- 
ly in western farm mortgages. After be- 
ing with this corporation for two years, on 
March 18, 1889, he became associated with 
the Fidelity Trust Company of Newark. 
In connection with that institution Mr. Mc- 
Carter became a powerful factor from the 
time with which he became associated 



therewith. From the date of his gradua- 
tion from Princeton, his business life had 
been passed in the field of finance and when 
at twenty-seven years of age he became 
connected with the Fidelity Trust Com- 
pany, he had already absorbed much knowl- 
edge which served him advantageously in 
his new field of work. 

Mr. McCarter began his duties with the 
Fidelity Trust Company, shortly after its 
organization, and he has exerted a power- 
ful influence in its upbuilding and develop- 
ment. He was elected executive manager 
March 18, 1889. Thereafter he served as 
secretary and trust officer and filled other 
positions in management which are never 
defined by official titles during the periods 
of rapid growth in institutions such as this, 
wherein the principal officers do whatso- 
ever their hands find to do without punc- 
tilious conformity to the strict definitions 
that govern the prescribed ranks of officials. 
Reared as he was in an atmosphere in 
which the leaders of great industries were 
constantly moving, he has seen the state 



14 



BIOGRAPHICAL CYCLOPEDIA 



of New Jersey rise from a minor place 
as a manufacturing region to a position in 
which, reckoning by its horse power and 
the capital devoted to its manufactories as 
to units of population, it stands second only 
to Massachusetts. During the period of his 
connection with the Fidelity Trust Com- 
pany, the population of Newark has al- 
most doubled and is advancing at bounding 
rate, and, under his able management, the 
Fidelity Trust Company has more than 
kept pace with the advancement in popula- 
tion and prosperity, and is to-day the most 
important financial institution of its kind 
in the state of New Jersey. 

Mr. McCarter is interested in other fi- 
nancial institutions throughout the state, 
and is a member of the board of directors 
of the following : The LTnion National 
Bank of Newark; the Prudential Insurance 
Company; the Essex County Trust Com- 
pany, of East Orange ; the Union County 
Trust Company, of Elizabeth ; the New 
Brunswick Trust Company, of New Bruns- 
wick, and the Public Service Corporation. 
In the management of all of these large in- 



stitutions, and corporations, his advice and 
counsel is sought and in all of these enter- 
prises his influence has been a force, and 
a force in the right direction. 

When the New Jersey Bankers' Associa- 
tion was organized, Mr. McCarter was 
elected vice-president, and the following 
year was elected its president, a position to 
which his career as one of the most pro- 
gressive of financiers unquestionably en- 
titled him. As president of this organiza- 
tion he has contributed in a large manner 
to its development and present high stand- 
ard. Mr. McCarter is a ready and in- 
teresting speaker, and is frequently called 
upon to deliver addresses upon financial 
matters. He is a financier of more than or- 
dinary ability, far-seeing and conservative, 
yet ever ready to lend his support to sound- 
ly managed enterprises which seem assured 
of success and will add to the material 
prosperity of his city and state. 

He married January 30, 1889, Jane 
Meeker Lewis, of Newark. One child, Isa- 
belle Lewis McCarter, born January 11, 
1 90 1, has blessed this union. 



JOHN ALBERT BLAIR 

JERSEY CITY 



JOHN ALBERT BLAIR, notable as one 
of the representative men of New Jer- 
sey, being able as a lawyer and distinguished 
as a jurist, was born near Blairstown, N. J., 
July 8, 1842. He is the son of John H. 
Blair and Mary Angle, and the grandson 
of William Blair and Rachel Brands, of 
Knowlton township, Warren county, N. J., 
being a descendant of one of the most dis- 
tinguished families of his State. He traces 
his ancestry back to the noted Blair family 
of Blair-Athol, Perthshire, Scotland, rep- 
resentatives of which came to America as 
early as 1720, settling in Pennsylvania and 
New Jersey. Among them were two 
brothers. Samuel and John Blair, both of 



whom were educated at the famous Log 
College on the Neshaminy under the cele- 
brated William Tennent and became dis- 
tinguished as ministers of the Presbyterian 
church. The Rev. Samuel Blair was called 
to Fagg's Manor, in Chester county, Pa., 
in 1739, where, in conjunction with his 
pastoral work, he conducted a school that 
was among the most noteworthy of the 
early Presbyterian academies. His son, 
also the Rev. Samuel Blair, was pastor of 
the Old South Church in Boston before the 
Revolution. He became chaplain of the 
Pennsylvania Battalion of Riflemen that 
participated in the siege of Boston. The 
Rev. Samuel Blair, the second, was offered 




ii^i^ It llC(A^y 



BIOGRAPHICAL CYCLOPEDIA 



15 



the presidency of the College of New Jer- 
sey, now Princeton University, but de- 
clined in favor of Dr. Witherspoon. The 
Rev. John Blair was ordained pastor of Big 
Spring, Middle Spring and Rocky Spring, 
in the Cumberland Valley, in 1742, but re- 
signed in consequence of the frequent In- 
dian incursions on the frontier (1755-57) 
and succeeded his brother at Fagg's 
Manor. In 1767 he became Professor of 
Divinity and Moral Philosophy at Prince- 
ton and was acting president of the col- 
lege until the accession of Dr. Witherspoon 
in 1769. He died at Walkill, in the New 
York Highlands, in 1771. While one 
branch of the family was thus devoting its 
energies to the work of the ministry and 
the dissemination of knowledge, another 
was molding the commerce which has since 
developed into one of the mainstays of the 
State of New Jersey. In the latter part of 
the eighteenth century, another Samuel 
Blair was sent by a Philadelphia firm to 
take charge of the iron industry at O.xford 
Furnace in Warren County, N. J. This 
Sanuiel Blair was the great-great-grand- 
father of John Albert Blair and the great- 
grandfather of the late John Insley Blair, 
who died December 2, 1899, ^^ the age of 
ninety-seven years, after one of the most 
eventful careers in the history of New Jer- 
sey. John Albert Blair received his earlier 
education in the public schools of his na- 
tive place and was later prepared for col- 
lege at the Blairstown Presbyterian Acad- 
emy. Entering the College of New Jersey 
at Princeton, he was graduated from that 
institution in 1866 with honors, afterwards 
becoming a law student in the office of 
Hon. Jehiel G. Shipman, at Belvidere, N. 
J. He was admitted to the New Jersey bar 
as an attorney at the June term, 1869, and 
as a counselor in June, 1872. It was in 
January, 1870, that he located in Jersey 
City, where he has ever since resided, there 
forming a law partnership with Stephen B. 
Ransom, an old and distinguished lawyer 
in that city. He was not long in winning 
a reputation for himself as an able and con- 



scientious lawyer, clear and discriminating 
in his judgment, and possessed of scholarly 
attainments of a high order. An eloquent 
speaker, forceful in argument, his occa- 
sional public addresses are disting^iished 
by a high degree of literary merit, while his 
legal efforts have been marked by profound 
knowledge of the law and a convincing 
force. On the passage of the law creating 
district courts in Jersey City in 1877, Gov- 
ernor Joseph D. Bedle appointed Mr. Blair 
and Hon. Bennington F. Randolph as the 
first judges to fill the positions thus pro- 
vided for. Judge Blair proved himself in 
every way worthy of the dignity conferred. 
As a judge he was upright, fair and im- 
partial, just in his decisions and learned in 
the law. He retired from the bench with 
the respect and confidence of both bar and 
public, and in May, 1885, was appointed 
Corporation Counsel for the city of Jersey 
City, in which capacity his services were of 
great public value. He retained the office in 
c|uestion until 1889, when he resigned. He 
was named again for the same responsible 
position in 1894, accepted it, and served 
with credit until April i, 1898, when 
he resigned to accept the appointment 
of Judge of the Court of Common 
Pleas, General Quarter Sessions, and 
Orphan's Court of the County of Hud- 
son, being named for the bench by 
Governor Griggs just before the latter 
became Attorney-General of the United 
States in the Cabinet of President Mc- 
Kinley. Since that time Judge Blair has 
continued to preside over the courts re- 
ferred to and has added fresh prestige to 
his name as a jurist of the fullest capacity. 
His opinions are models in their way and 
on appeal are generally upheld by the high- 
er tribunals. Judge Blair is a Republican 
in his ])olitical principles, and his ances- 
tors were Whigs before him. While prom- 
inent and active in party affairs, his name 
being frequently mentioned in connection 
with some of the most honorable positions 
in the gift of the people of the State, 
Judge Blair has never been an office seeker, 



i6 



BIOGRAPHICAL CYCLOPEDIA 



having no ambitions in the cHrection of po- 
litical honors. He has been a regular at- 
tendant of the First Presbyterian Church 
of Jersey City for years and personally, as 
professionally, is a man of high and un- 
sullied character. He is popular in social 
life and is a leading member of the Palma 
Club, as well as one of the organizers of 
the LTnion League Club, of Jersey City, of 
which body he was president for a number 



of years. A lover of books, he has col- 
lected a large and remarkably fine library, 
in which he finds unfailing delight. He is 
cultured to an exceptional degree, broad in 
mind, courteous in manner, and possessed 
of wide general knowledge. Jersey City 
looks upon him as a citizen of whom the 
community has reason to feel justly proud, 
in which opinion all who know him will 
heartily agree. 



ADRIAN RIKER 

NEWARK 



ADRIAN RIKER, prominent in New 
Jersey legal circles as one of the ac- 
knowledged leaders of the bar of that State, 
was born in Clinton township, Essex Coun- 
ty, New Jersey, August i6, 1858. He is a 
son of William Riker and Sarah M. Hunter, 
and is descended on both sides from two of 
the oldest and most respected families in the 
State of New Jersey, his ancestry being of 
Holland-Dutch origin through the paternal 
branch and of Scotch-English lineage 
through the mother. His father for many 
years was one of Newark's best known bus- 
iness men, being at the head of the Riker 
Jewelry Manufacturing Company, a largtj 
and successful enterprise that is one of the 
most representative concerns of its class in 
the country. 

The son received his rudimentary educa- 
tion in Newark, where he later attended 
the Newark Academy. He then entered 
Princeton University, from which institu- 
tion he was graduated in the class of 1879. 
Having determined to adopt the law as his 
profession, he became a student at the Ca 
lumbia Law School, from which he was 
graduated in 1881, being admitted that same 
year to the bar of New York. He was aa- 
mitted to the bar of New Jersey as an attor- 
ney in June, 1883, and was made a coun- 
selor-at-law in June, 1887. Since his ad- 
mission, he has been in successful practice 



in Newark, being a member of the law firm 
of Riker & Riker, his partner being his elder 
brother. Chandler W. Riker, also a lawyci 
of high ability who has won eminence and 
standing at the bar of his State, in 1895, be- 
ing tendered the appointment of Judge of 
the Circuit Court, an honor he declined as 
he preferred to devote his entire attention 
to private practice. 

Adrian Riker became master in chan- 
cery in 1884. In the course of his career, 
Mr. Riker has been successfully identi- 
fied with a great deal of important liti- 
gation, in all which cases he has displayed 
marked skill and has handled his clients' in- 
terests with a vigor and knowledge that 
were exceptional. He is convincing in argu- 
ment and the care with which he prepares 
his causes has served to gain him prestige 
throughout Eastern New Jersey. He is 
general counsel to a number of the leading 
firms and corporations of Essex County, 
and his high personal integrity and pleasing 
personality as a man, coupled with his 
standing at the bar, have won him the re- 
spect and confidence of the community at 
large. 

Mr. Riker is a Republican in his political 
I)rinciples and affiliations, and at times he 
has been an active factor in the campaigns 
of his party. He was a member of the state 
assembly in 1888 and 1889, and his record 



BIOGRAPHICAL CYCLOPEDIA 



17 



in that body proved creditable in every way, 
his official etiforts being always on the side 
of good government and in support of those 
measures which he deemed most conducive 
to the general good. He is a man of public 
spirit, and he is justly esteemed in his city 



as a representative citizen. He belongs to a 
number of clubs and organizations, in all ol 
which he is popular and influential. He mar- 
ried December 2, 1891, Louise C. Daw- 
son, daughter of Ichabod W. and Mary L. 
Dawson, of Newark. 



MAX BRAUN 

NEWARK 



PROFESSOR MAX BRAUN, who for 
over half a century was a potent factor 
in the development of the art of music in 
New York City and Newark, was born in 
Ramberg village in the Rheinphalz, king- 
dom of Bavaria, Germany, March 24, 1825. 
He was carefully educated for the position 
of school teacher in the seminary in Speyer, 
the chief town of Bavaria and was gradu- 
ated with honors the first in his class of 
twenty-five. In 1845 he was appointed assist- 
ant teacher inRulzheim. In thatyear he com- 
posed an oratorio for male voices entilted 
"Stilling des Sturmes" ("Stilling the Tem- 
pest") with orchestra, which was perform- 
ed in 1847 in Langenkandel by the teachers 
of the district at their conference. 

His outspoken sympathy with the Revo- 
lutionary movement in 1848 caused him to 
emigrate to America in 1849. He lived in 
New York City and began his career as 
musical director, organist and teacher, a 
vocation which he followed during the rest 
of his active life. He held positions as 
organist and musical director in some of 
the most prominent churches of different 
denominations in Newark and New York. 
Of these may be mentioned St. Stevens 
Roman Catholic Church, and St. Francis 
Xavier, New York ; the Gnirch of the 
Messiah and the Dutch Reformed Churcli 
on the Heights in Brooklyn ; the First Bap- 
tist Church of Newark, New Jersey, with 
which he remained for thirteen years, and 
the Jewish synagogue B'nai Geshurun for 
eighteen years. Later he was organist of 



the Roseville Methodist Church, and of the 
Temple Oheb Shalon, Prince Street New- 
ark. In the year 1862, he was joint edi- 
tor of the Chorister and Musical Adviser, 
published by Abbey and Abbot, New York, 
and also contributed to the Musical World 
and Times. Of his published musical 
works are the following: "Amateur Com- 
poser and Science of Harmony," by Abbe ; 
"The Practical Harmonist" and "Cadenzai 
and Modulations," by Hall & Son; "The 
Art of Touch," by Peters, and many songs 
and piano forte pieces of all descriptions. 
For male voices he composed a number of 
quartets of which were published two fes- 
tival choruses with orchestra "Lubel- 
klaenge" and "Des Sangers Tahne :" also 
an evening service for the reformed Jewish 
rite, and others. He composed several 
operas, text as well as music. "The Klaus- 
ner," a comic opera, and "Goliath" were 
performed by the Beethoven Mennerchoir 
in New York in 1868 and the Aurora Sing- 
ing Society in Newark. In 1870 the Au- 
rora Society repeatedly performed his bur- 
lesque opera "Der Peine W'ilhelm" in four 
acts. 

His wonderful deep and active mind was 
not entirely devoted to the art of music 
He was a student of philosophy and pro- 
duced several philosophical works which 
were received favorably, two of which, 
"Gottes Werke" and "Das Weltall." re- 
ceived favorable mention from the press. 
Many years ago he published a witty but 
strong brochure entitled "Fug und Unfug," 



i8 



BIOGRAPHICAL CYCLOPEDIA 



which contained his ideas on several sub- 
jects inckiding music. He was also the 
author of a system of stenography which 
he claimed could be learned in a shorter 
time than any other system. The last work 
of Mr. P)raun's that was published was 
"Trompeter Von Sakkingcn." 

Professor Braun died May 31, 1908, in 



his eighty-fourth year. He had been twice 
married. His first wife died in 1878. In 
1879 he married Marie Gerard, who sur- 
vives him, together with her daughter, 
Ruby Gerard Braun, now Mrs. Alberich de 
Laet, an accomplished violinist ; a daugh- 
ter Karma Braun and a son, Max Braun, 



ANDREW KIRKPATRICK 

NEWARK 



ANDREW KIRKPATRICK. late Judge 
of the United States District Court of 
the District of New Jersey, and one of the 
distinguished American jurists of his times, 
was born in Washington, D. C, October 
8, 1844, son of John Bayard and Margaret 
(Weaver) Kirkpatrick, and grandson of 
the noted Chief Justice Andrew Kirkpat- 
rick, of the New Jersey Supreme Court. 
He was descended from a family resident 
in New Jersey since the early part of the 
eighteenth century, and characterized 
throughout that time by high social posi- 
tion and the exceptional attainments and 
achievements of its members. 

Judge Kirkpatrick's first American an- 
cestor was a native of Dumfries, Scotland, 
coming from ancient and honorable line- 
age. Participating in the rising for the 
Pretender under the Earl of Mar, he was 
obliged to emigrate, and with his family 
first removed to Belfast, Ireland, and from 
there to Somerset County, New Jersey, 
near Basking Ridge, where he died in 
1758. His second son, David Kirkpatrick, 
was, like his father, a rigid Presbyterian, 
and "of plain, unassuming habits, highly 
respected for his unswerving integrity and 
great preserverance." He married Mary 
McEwan, and died in 1814, being aged 
more than ninety years. The third in the 
ancestral line was the eminent Chief-Jus- 
tice Andrew Kirkpatrick (born February 
16, 1756, died 1831). Graduating from 



Princeton College in 1775, he taught 
school and studied law, and in 1785 was 
admitted to the New Jersey bar. After 
a successful career as a practitioner he 
was elected by the Legislature an Asso- 
ciate Judge of the New Jersey Supreme 
Court, from which position he was soon 
elevated to the Chief-Justiceship. His ser- 
vice on the bench of that court continued 
without interruption for twenty-seven 
years. He was also a member of the New 
Jersey Legislature and one of the Trus- 
tees of Princeton College. He married 
in 1792, Jane Bayard, daughter of Colonel 
John Bayard, formerly of Pennsylvania, 
and a distinguished officer in the Con- 
tinental Army. Their eldest son was John 
Bayard Kirkpatrick, who was a conspic- 
uous merchant of his day, largely engaged 
in the foreign trade, and who for a time 
held the office of Third Auditor of the 
Treasury Department at Washington. 

Andrew Kirkpatrick, eldest son of John 
Bayard Kirkpatrick, and his wife, Mar- 
garet Weaver, was, as noted above, born 
in Washington, D. C, this event occur- 
rin during the temporary residence of his 
parents in that city. Soon afterward the 
family returned to its permanent home in 
New Brunswick, New Jersey, where the 
son was reared and received his early edu- 
cation. After completing his preparatory 
studies in the Rutgers College Grammar 
School, he entered Union College at Sche- 




v_^-^ 



(T i^z^ ;/ 



cJc^>^i-<i^^^'^ 



BIOGRAPHICAL CYCLOPEDIA 



19 



nectady, N. Y., and from that institu- 
tion he was graduated in 1863 with the de- 
gree of bachelor of arts. The honorary 
degree of master of arts was conferred on 
him by Princeton University in 1870, and 
that of doctor of laws by Union College, 
his alma mater, in 1903. 

Deciding upon the profession of the law 
he became after graduation, a student in 
the office of Hon. Frederick T. Freling- 
huysen, of Newark, (later United States 
Senator and Secretary of State). He was 
admitted to the bar as an attorney in 
1866, and as a counsellor in 1869. En- 
joying the regard and appreciation of his 
preceptor, Mr. Frelinghuysen, he was in- 
vited by him to become a member of his 
law firm, and the professional association 
thus formed continued for several years. 
Subsequently he was connected in legal 
practice with the Hon. Frederick H. 
Teese. At the bar his abilities procured 
for him an eminent measure of success 
and reputation, and he rose to a position 
as one of the recognized leaders of his 
profession in the State of New Jersey. 

Mr. Kirkpatrick's first judicial appoint- 
ment, that of Law Judge of the Essex 
County Court of Common Pleas, was re- 
ceived in April, 1885, from Governor Ab- 
bett. By successive reappointments he 
continued to serve as Judge of the Com- 
mon Pleas Court until 1896, when he re- 
signed to accept the position of Judge of the 
United States District Court for the Dis- 
trict of New Jersey, which was tendered 
to him by President Cleveland. To the 
duties of this honorable and important 
office the remainder of his life was de- 
voted. 

Judge Kirkpatrick's characteristic qual- 
ities and traits have been thus described 
by an appreciative writer: "His career 
on the bench showed a wide knowledge of 
the law, together with a large fund of 
common sense, and his methods were cel- 
ebrated for this latter trait. He acquit- 
ted himself with honor, and the brevity of 
his charge to juries was frequently com- 



mented on. . . . His legal knowledge 
was brought to bear on the cases, to the 
disentanglement of many knotty prob- 
lems. His record as a Federal judge was 
brilliant, and to his courtesy and humanity 
there were hundreds to testify. Quick- 
witted, intolerant of shame of any kind, 
and broad-minded, Judge Kirkpatrick con- 
ducted cases to the admiration of lawyers 
and jurists of many minds. . . . He 
possessed wide reading, and because of 
the soundness of his judgment his opinions 
carried weight in the legal world. They 
were regarded as peculiarly clear in state- 
ment, and had the quality of being easily 
comprehended by the lay mind. He was a 
keen student of human nature, a man of 
force and insight of character." 

During his judicial service several of 
the most important commercial and cor- 
porate cases of his time came before him 
for determination, including those of the 
United States Steel Company, the United 
States Shipbuilding Company, and the 
"Asphalt Trust." 

Though his career was essentially that 
of a lawyer and judge, he was known for 
administrative abilities of a high order, 
which on a memorable occasion were ex- 
ercised for the great advantage of one of 
the most extensive business interests of 
the country. In 1893, upon the failure of 
the Domestic Manufacturing Company, 
he was appointed receiver of that con- 
cern, with authority to continue the busi- 
ness of making and selling the Domestic 
Sewing Machines. Notwithstanding the 
unexampled finacial depression of the 
times, he discharged this trust with such 
skill that the works, with their hundreds 
of employees, were continued in operation, 
and at the expiration of his official term 
as receiver he delivered the property to 
the stockholders entirely freed from its 
embarrassments, and with assets sufficient 
to pay its creditors in full. 

Among the important intersts with 
which he was identified, were the follow- 
ing: He was one of the organizers and 



20 



BIOGRAPHICAL CYCLOPEDIA 



president of the Federal Trust Company, 
a director in tlie Howard Savings Institu- 
tion, treasurer of the T. P. Howell Com- 
pany, director of the Fidelity Title and 
Deposit Company, and director of the 
Newark Gas Company. He served the 
public with efficiency as one of the New- 
ark City Hall Commissioners and as a 
member of the Sinking Fund Commission 
of that city. 

In personal respects Judge Kirkpatrick 
was a type of the highest American cit- 
izenship — a man of the purest integrity 
and loftiest ideals, devoted to the obliga- 
tions of family and friendly attachment, 
most valuable and attractive in his pri- 
vate character, and, with his family, sus- 



taining a prominent social position. He 
took a lively interest in the Essex Club, 
and he was one of the original governors 
of that organization. He was also a mem- 
ber of the JefFersonian Club and one of 
the organizers of the Sons of the Ameri- 
can Revolution. 

He died at his residence in Newark, N. 
J., May 4, 1904. 

Judge Kirkpatrick married, first, in 
1869, Alice Condit, daughter of Joel W. 
Condit. Three children were born of this 
union, Andrew, John Bayard, and Alice. 
He married, second, in 1883, Louise C. 
Howell, daughter of Theodore P. Howell. 
She bore him three children, Littleton, 
Isabelle, and Elizabeth. 



CHARLES J. ALLEN 

NEWARK 



CHARLES JOSEPH ALLEN, news- 
paperman, national guardsman, and 
Secretary of the State Board of Tenement 
House Supervision of New Jersey, was 
born in New York City March 19, 1865 
Captain Allen, as he is better known, was 
educated in the public schools of New York. 
He began the serious duties of life as a 
machinist and was engaged in that occuppa- 
tion in Newark when he was induced by 
a friend who had become acquainted with 
his ability as a writer and speaker to take a 
position with one of the local newspapers. 
This was the old Newark Journal. Later he 
had charge of the Sunday Standard, and 
following that he put in seven years of ser- 
vice as a reporter on the Newark Nezvs. 
He went from the Navs to the Newark 
Daily Advertiser, remaining on the staff of 
that newspaper until 1904. 

The first newspaper work that brought 
Captain Allen prominently before the pub- 
lic was done by him as war correspondent 
for the Advertiser. He went south with 
the First Regiment shortly after the out- 



break of the Spanish-American War and 
remained with that organization until its re- 
turn to Newark. His articles appeared 
daily in his newspaper over his signature 
and were eagerly read by all who were in- 
terested in the members and the movements 
of the First Regiment. The war corres- 
pondent became so much interested in mili- 
tary life while in the south that he enlisted 
as a private in the First Regiment, and in a 
few weeks was commissioned as second 
lieutenant of Company K. At the close of 
the war, he served as secretary of a special 
commission appointed by the New Jersey 
State government to adjust claims of volun- 
teers for clothing and extra conpensation. 
In July, 1904, he was elected Captain of 
Company M, First Regiment, and ever 
since then his interest and zeal on behalf of 
his company and of the First Regiment 
have been unflagging. At different times 
he has served on special occasions as a 
member of the personal stafif of both Gov- 
ernor Murphy and Governor Stokes. Per- 
haps Captain Allen's best newspaper work 



BIOGRAPHICAL CYCLOPEDIA 



21 



was as legislative correspondent for the Ad- 
vertiser at Trenton. He served in this ca- 
pacity for several years and became well 
acquainted with the public men of the State 
and with the various state departments and 
institutions. 

When, in 1903, Governor Franklin ]Mur- 
phy appointed a commission to investigate 
the tenement house conditions of Xew Jer- 
sey, the commission selected Captain .\llen 
as its Secretary. He was rewarded for the 
excellent work he did by receiving the ap- 
pointment as Secretary of the State Board 
of Tenement House Supervision when that 
was permanently established. New Jersey 
is the only state in the Union having a tene- 
ment house department that is state-wide 
in its scope, and under Captain .\nen's in- 
telligent and energetic supervision as sec- 



retary and working executive head, the de- 
partment has become one of the most effi- 
cient in the state. He himself has become 
recognized as an expert in housing condi- 
tions as well as in tenement house construc- 
tion, and is frequently consulted and called 
upon to make addresses by various organi- 
zations in the state interested in the im- 
provement of social conditions. He has also 
been consulted by representatives of other 
states that are undertaking the supervision 
of tenement houses, and in one instance has 
been consulted with regard to the operation 
of his department by a representative of a 
foreign government. Captain Allen mar- 
ried May 26, 1886, Nellie ;\I. Dorley. in 
St. Jerome's Church, Xew York City. He 
has two children. 



ELIJAH STRONG COWLES 

JERSEY CITY 



ELIJAH STRONG COWLES is a na- 
tive of the Green Mountain State, hav- 
ing been born in Coventry, Vermont, on 
April 30, 1836. He traces his ancestors 
through several generations back to the 
earlier settlement of New England, and his 
forbears were prominent and influential in 
the development of the New England col- 
onies. 

After receiving preliminary training in 
the public schools, he entered the St. 
Johnsbury, (Vermont,) Academy, where 
he fitted for Dartmouth College. Illness 
prevented him from pursuing a collegiate 
course, but he turned his attention to the 
study of law and entered the office of the 
Honorable Ephraim Paddock, one of the 
justices of the Supreme Court of \'ermont. 
Being admitted to the bar of his native 
State, for two years he practiced his pro- 
fession in Coventry, the town in which he 
was born. He then came to New York 
City, where he continued to practice for 



about two years, or until 1868, when he re- 
moved to Jersey City and entered the law 
office of Washington B. Williams. Here 
he formed the acquaintance of Edgar B. 
W'akeman, then a prominent member of the 
New Jersey bar, residing in Jersey City. 
Mr. Cowles entered ]\Ir. Wakeman's of- 
fice, and when the latter retired, succeeded 
to his business. In 1875 he again associated 
himself with Washington B. Williams, un- 
der the firm name of Williams & Cowles, a 
partnership which continued for about 
twelve years, and became one of the best 
known of the leading law firms of Eastern 
New Jersey. About 1895 Mr. Cowles form- 
ed a partnership with William H. Carey, 
formerly a professor in Hasbrouck Insti- 
tute, Jersey City, and the law firm of 
Cowles & Carey has since continued active- 
ly and successfully in the practice of law 
in both Jersey City and New York City. 

Mr. Cowles has achieved eminent reputa- 
tion at the bar, and during his entire career 



22 



BIOGRAPHICAL CYCLOPEDIA 



has maintained the respect and confidence 
of all who know him. He is a lawyer of 
ability, industry and integrity. As a citi- 
zen he is thoroughly identified with the city 
and county and is active and influential in 
every movement which has for its object 
the welfare of the community. He is inter- 
ested in the Automatic Fire Alarm Com- 
pany of New York City, of which he has 
been President for many years, and under 
his executive management it has become a 
profitable and successful enterprise. He 
has always been deeply devoted to the de- 
velopment of Christian and charitable work, 
especially that of the Young Men's Chris- 
tian Association of Jersey City, of which 
he was one of the founders and which he 



served as President for five years. He is 
an ardent advocate of the principles of the 
Republican party and takes an active part 
in political affairs. He was appointed by 
Mayor W'anser to the Board of Education 
of Jersey City, and served five years as 
chairman of the high school committee. 

Mr. Cowles has been three times married. 
His first wife was Sarah L. Persons, who 
died in 1871, leaving two children, both of 
whom have passed away. In 1875 he was 
married to Sarah E. Woodward of New 
York City, who died in 1893. In 1895 he 
married yVnna Banta of New York City; 
they had one daughter, Sarah Banta 
Cowles. 



COLONEL WILLIAM BARBOUR 

PATERSON 



FLAX is one of the world's oldest known 
plants. On it the ingenuity of man has 
been exercised with the greatest success and 
utility from remote antiquity. To-day we 
know not where or how it originated. Ages 
ago it was found growingwild in Persia,and 
from time immemorial Egypt was cele- 
brated for its cultivation and manufacture. 
Strabo, the Greek philosopher, born in the 
year 60 B. C, wrote that Panopolis, the 
ancient name of the present Egyptian town 
of Akhmini, on the Nile, was the chief seat 
of the linen industry, and the most ancient 
writers praise the fine linen of that coun- 
try. The plant was cultivated in Europe 
from seven thousand to ten thousand years 
ago. It is mentioned in the Book of Gen- 
esis, and in Exodus it is stated to have been 
a production of Egypt in the days of the 
Pharaohs. Solomon bought linen yarn in 
Egypt and sold it to his merchants to be 
retailed to the people (II. Chron. i :i6). 

Linen formed part of the garments of 
the Hebrew as well as the Egyptian priests, 
and the better class of the ancient Scandi- 



navians were clothed in it. The cere-cloth 
in which the most ancient mummies were 
wrapped proves its early and extensive use. 
Seetzen, the German naturalist, born in 
1767, wrote that he had found several nap- 
kins within the folds of the covering on a 
mummy, had had them washed several 
times without injury, and had used "this 
venerable linen, which had been woven 
more than 1,700 years". Charlemagne wore 
fine linen underclothing, and linen has been 
made in France since the time of the 
Roman rule. Superior linen was made in 
Wilts and Sussex. England, as early as 
1253; spinning schools for girls were com- 
mon in Germany in 1677; and linen manu- 
facture was an established industry in Ire- 
land in the early part of the eleventh cen- 
tury. 

The spinning and weaving of flax consti- 
tuted an important industry in the United 
States a hundred years ago; but to-day the 
manufactures are mostly thread, twine, and 
towehng. American farmers at present cul- 
tivate the plant for the seed, used for a 




'7(JJoMai^/^ 



BIOGRAPHICAL CYCLOPEDIA 



23 



variety of purposes, including linseed oil 
and oil cake, the latter a valuable cattle 
food, and allow the stalk to go to waste 
owing to the cost and difficulty of obtain- 
ing the commercial fiber from it. 

We have thus briefly outlined the historj' 
and development of one of the world's old- 
est industries as a fitting introduction to 
an eminent citizen of New Jersey who 
represents a family connection with this 
ancient industry extending backward for 
more than a hundred and forty years, a 
record as remarkable in many respects as 
the industry with which he is allied. 

Colonel William Barbour, of Paterson, 
N. J., a son of Thomas and Sarah Elizabeth 
Barbour, was born in New York City on 
September 9, 1847, ^"d is the direct de- 
scendant of an ancient family of Paisley, 
Scotland. One of its members, John Bar- 
bour, the grandfather of Thomas, removed 
to Lisburn, Ireland, about 1768, and, after 
engaging in flax spinning there, founded, 
in 1784, what is now the oldest linen- 
thread manufacturing establishment in the 
world, which was conducted for many years 
under the style of William Barbour & Sons, 
Ltd., and has come to control the flax-thread 
trade of the world. Thomas Barbour, a son 
of William, came to the United States 
about 1840, and was the American agent of 
the Lisburn establishment until about 1864, 
when he was joined by his brother, Robert 
(born in Lisburn in 1826; died in Paterson 
in 1892), and the two soon afterward estab- 
lished extensive thread works in Paterson, 
under the firm name of the Barbour Flax- 
Spinning Company. This undertaking was 
eminently successful from the start. The 
Barbour thread had already attained a 
world-wide reputation and a ready demand 
in this country, and with this impetus the 
Paterson enterprise speedily developed into 
one of the leading industries of its class in 
the world. 

Colonel Barbour's parents removed to 
Paterson while he was a child, and he re- 
ceived his early education in a private 
school of that city, subsequently attending 



the well-known High Street Academy at 
Newark, N. J. He also spent two years in 
Hanover, Germany, and a year in Tours, 
France, to acquire a familiarity with the 
language of those countries. On his return 
to Paterson he entered the employment of 
the Barbour Flax Spinning Company and 
has smce been associated with the various 
Barbour interests. 

The success that marked his management 
of the vast concerns under his direction 
naturally attracted the attention of men 
connected with other large enterprises and 
he has been eagerly sought for influential 
places in the administration of more cor- 
porations than his time would permit him 
to accept. He has, however, entered the 
directorate of a considerable number of 
financial and other corporations and is to- 
day Vice-President and director of the 
United Shoe Machinery Corporation, di- 
rector in the Hanover National Bank of 
New York, director in the U. S. Smelting, 
Refining & Mining Co., the American Cot- 
ton Oil Company, Safety Car Heating & 
Lighting Co., First National Bank, Pater- 
son Savings Institution, and Paterson Safe 
Deposit & Trust Co. of Paterson, N. J., 
President of the Hamilton Trust Company 
of Paterson, N. J., Governor of the Society 
of LTseful Manufactures of Paterson, and 
a director of Water Companies of New 
Jersey; President of the Linen Thread 
Company of New Jersey and Managing Di- 
rector in the United States of the Linen 
Thread Company, Ltd. 

The Barbour families in the United 
States in political belief have always been 
in unswerving affiliation with the Republi- 
can jiarty, though their vast business inter- 
ests have, as a rule, permitted them but 
slight opportunity for conspicuous service. 
Colonel Barbour, with all his manifold re- 
sponsibilities has found occasions, how- 
ever, to give active aid in promoting the 
welfare of the party, and is recognized as 
one of its most prominent members in New 
Jersey. 

In 1884 he was a delegate from New 



24 



BIOGRAPHICAL CYCLOPEDIA 



Jersey to the National Republican Conven- 
tion at Chicago which nominated James G. 
Blaine for the Presidency; and has been a 
delegate from the Sixth District of New 
Jersey at every National Convention since 
that date. 

Colonel Barbour had been intimately 
acquainted with William McKinley for 
many years, and was one of his strongest 
supporters in the St. Louis convention, and 
it is generally conceded that his friendship 
for Mr. Hobart had as much to do with 
his name appearing on the ticket as any 
other of his many warm supporters. In 
the National affairs of his party he also 
held for a year the office of treasurer of 
the National Committee ; and, on being 
forced by other interests to retire, he was 
succeeded by Cornelius N. Bliss, of New 
York. In State politics he was a delegate 
to the convention of 1895 which nominated 
John W. Griggs for Governor, and after 
Mr. Griggs's election, he being the first 
Republican candidate elected Governor of 
New Jersey in twenty-five years, Mr. Bar- 
bour was appointed a member of his per- 
sonal staff, with the rank of Colonel, a dig- 
nity that he resigned when Mr. Griggs was 
appointed Attorney-General of the United 
States. 



Colonel Barbour is a member of the 
Union League, Republican, and Merchants' 
Clubs of New York; the Hamilton Club of 
Paterson, and the Central Presbyterian 
Church of New York. 

He was married to Julia Adelaide, 
daughter of John H. Sprague, of New 
York, on November 8, 1883. They have 
four sons, Thomas, connected with Har- 
vard LIniversity ; Robert, a student at Co- 
lumbia University; William Warren, as- 
sistant treasurer of the Linen Thread Com- 
pany ; and Fritz Krupp, a student, named 
after the famous Prussian gun-maker, be- 
cause of the intimate friendship that long 
existed between him and Colonel Barbour. 
Colonel Barbour is a man of broad and 
liberal views rising on occasion above the 
prejudices of the hour, ever eminently 
just, firm of purpose, resolute in the pur- 
suit of the right as he sees it, and earnest 
and unflinching in the maintenance of it. 
Yet withal he is keenly alive to all that 
which is sympathetic, moral and magnani- 
mous. He is easy of approach, exceedingly 
afifable, solicitous for the well-being of the 
people associated with him in business, and 
a liberal patron of institutions that are 
really doing good in the community. 



WILLIAM MINDRED JOHNSON 

HACKENSACK 



WILLIAM MINDRED JOHNSON, 
alike distinguished as an eminent 
member of the bar of Northern New Jer- 
sey, a Republican leader in local and State 
affairs, former incumbent of the Federal 
office of First-Assistant Postmaster-Gen- 
eral, and as a practical philanthropist, was 
born December 2, 1847, in Newton, Sussex 
County, New Jersey, a town famous for 
the large number of eminent lawyers it has 
given to the State. On both sides he comes 
of an ancestry that had much to do with 



the early progress of his native State as 
well as of the country. His great-great- 
grandfather was Casper Schaeffer, a member 
of the Provincial Congress in 1776-77; his 
paternal great-grandfather was Henry John- 
son, who served the cause of independence 
as a captain in the Continental army. His 
parents were the Honorable Whitfield 
Schaeffer Johnson and Ellen Green, a 
daughter of Enoch Green and a sister of 
the Honorable Henry Green, Chief Justice 
of the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania. 



BIOGRAPHICAL CYCLOPEDIA 



25 



His father was one of the notable men of 
the day. Born also in Newton, November 
14, 1806, he was there educated, and, after 
studying law in the Newark office of the 
Honorable Joseph C. Hornblower, later 
Chief Justice of New Jersey, was admitted 
to the bar in 1828, and returned to New- 
ton to practice. He followed his profes- 
sion there for many years with noteworthy 
success. He also served as Prosecutor of 
the Pleas of Sussex County, was Secretary 
of State of New Jersey in 1861-66, and 
held the office of Register in Bankruptcy. 
He died in Trenton on December 24, 1874. 

William M. Johnson was educated in the 
Newton Collegiate Institute, the State 
Model School in Trenton, and Princeton 
University, being graduated from the latter 
institution in 1867. He studied law in 
Trenton, first with the Honorable Edward 
W. Scudder, and later with the Honorable 
Garret D. W. Vroom ; was admitted to the 
bar as an attorney in 1870 and as a coun- 
selor in 1873 ; and practiced in that city 
till 1874, when he removed to Hackensack, 
where he has since resided. Here he has 
been notably active and influential in all 
movements for the betterment of the com- 
munity. Besides having served in various 
town offices, he has been particularly con- 
spicuous in the promotion of advanced edu- 
cational facilities. In order to supplement 
the local system with an instrument of 
higher education as well as popular enter- 
tainment, he built the Johnson Public Li- 
brary, at a cost of about $60,000, in 1900, 
and presented it to the town. He also 
became an organizer and a director of the 
Hackensack National Bank, and President 
of the Hackensack Trust Company. The 
religious activities of Mr. Johnson have 
been exercised in connection with the Sec- 
ond Reformed Church, of which he has 
long been an efficient officer. In his recrea- 
tive life he is identified with the Oritani 
Field Club, the Hackensack Golf Club, 
the Plamilton Club, the Lawyers' Club, 
the Princeton Club of New York, 
the Holland Society, the Washington 



Association of Morristown, the Ber- 
gen County Historical Society, the New 
Jersey Historical Society and the New Jer- 
sey Society of the Sons of the Revolution. 
Mr. Johnson has long been active in Re- 
publican politics, and holds the distinction 
of having been the first State Senator ever 
elected in Bergen County by that party. 
He was a member of the Republican State 
Committee in 1884; a delegate to the Re- 
publican National Conventions in 1888 and 
1904 ; was elected to the State Senate in 
1895 and 1898; was the Republican 
floor leader there in 1898 and 1899; 
and was chairman of the Republican 
State Conventions in 1900 and 1904. 
In 1900 he became president of the 
Senate, and was acting-governor during the 
absence of Governor Voorhees in Europe. 
While in the Senate he served on a num- 
ber of important committees, including 
those on appropriations and state library, 
being chairman of each ; judiciary, boroughs 
and borough commissions, state hospitals, 
and the Reform School for Boys. 

In August, 1900, he was appointed by 
President McKinley First-Assistant Post- 
master-General of the United States, an 
office he resigned in 1902 because of ill 
health. During his tenure of the office he 
did much to facilitate the development of 
the free rural delivery service. Several 
flattering official preferments have been 
tendered him, including an appointment to 
the bench of the Supreme Court of the 
State and nominations for Governor and 
for Congress, but in each instance he de- 
clined the honor. 

A recent writer familiar with his life and 
achievements, said of him : "In every ca- 
pacity and relation in life, Senator John- 
son has exhibited consummate ability, a 
broad and liberal knowledge and a com- 
mendable public spirit and enterprise. Pri- 
vately, he is possessed of scholarly attain- 
ments, and is universally respected for 
those virtues which make up the loyal friend 
and honest man." 



26 



BIOGRAPHICAL CYCLOPEDIA 



He married Maria E. White, daughter 
of William White, of Trenton, October 22, 
1872. The children of this union were: 



Walter Whitfield Johnson (deceased), 
George White Johnson, and William Kemp- 
ton Johnson. 



GROVER CLEVELAND 

PRINCETON 



GROVER CLEVELAND, twice Pres- 
ident of the United States, and one of 
the most forceful characters in the political 
history of the country, was born in the 
Presbyterian parsonage in Caldwell, Essex 
County, New Jersey, March 18, 1837. He 
was of English ancestry on the paternal 
side and of Irish on the maternal. The 
first American representative of the family 
was Moses Qeveland, who left his home hi 
Ipswich, Suffolk County, England, in 1635, 
and settled in Woburn, Massachusetts. His 
grandson, Captain Aaron Cleveland, of 
Medford, Massachusetts, had a son, also 
named Aaron, who became noted first as a 
Presbyterian and later as an Episcopal cler- 
gyman. A grandson of the second Aaron 
Cleveland, William Cleveland, of Nor- 
wich, Connecticut, had a son, Richard 
Falley Cleveland, who became pastor of the 
Presbyterian church in Caldwell, and mar- 
ried Anne Neal, daughter of a Baltimore 
merchant of Irish birth. The two last were 
the parents of Grover Cleveland, who was 
named Stephen Grover, in honor of the 
Rev. Stephen Grover, the first occupant of 
the Caldwell parsonage; but the first name 
was dropped in his early youth. 

As a boy he had few educational advan- 
tages and it may be truly said of him that 
he was self-educated. When he was four 
years old his father accepted a call to Fay 
etteville. New York, and later to Clinton, 
New York, and in each of these places 
young Cleveland attended the local acade- 
my working in a country store between the 
two periods. When about sixteen years old 
however, his schooling was stopped and up- 
on the death of his father, which necessi- 



tated his going to work to aid in sup- 
porting the rest of the family, he was 
forced to abandon his plans for a col- 
legiate education. William Cleveland, an 
elder brother, was a teacher in the New 
York Institution for the Blind, in New 
York City, and through his influence Grov- 
er secured employment there as a clerk and 
assistant teacher in which position he re- 
mained for a single year. 

In 1855 he undertook a journey to the 
West in search of permanent employment. 
Stopping in the present Black Rock section 
of Buffalo, New York, to visit an uncle, 
Lewis F. Allen, he was set to work upon 
the compilation of "The American Herd- 
Book," for which he received $10.00 pei 
week for six weeks. In the autumn of that 
year he entered the law offices of Rogers, 
Bowen & Rogers, as a clerk and copyist. A 
congenial opportunity thus seemed to open 
to him, and he began reading Blackstone 
and other legal authorities with such avid- 
ity that in 1859 he was able to pass the re- 
quired examination for admission to the 
bar. He remained with his preceptors for 
three years as managing clerk, and in the 
meantime became interested in Democratic 
politics. Earnest, fearless, thorough, ana 
with engaging manners, he was soon con- 
sidered for political preferment. 

On January i, 1863, he was appointed to 
be assistant district attorney of Erie coun 
ty. New York, and held the office for three 
years. His official conduct attracted a de- 
gree of attention that led to his being chos- 
en as the party candidate for the office of 
district attorney when he was twenty-eight 
years old ; but he was defeated by Lyman 




^. 



^^. 



BIOGRAPHICAL CYCLOPEDIA 



27 



K. Bass, his republican opponent and a 
subsequent partner and close friend. He 
then entered into a law partnership with 
Isaac V. Vanderpool and four years later 
became a member of the firm of Lanning 
Qeveland & Folsom, continuing in remun- 
erative practice till 1870, when his party 
gave him the nomination for sheriff of Erie 
county, to which office he was elected. He 
served the full term of three years, and 
then for eight years was again in general 
law practice, as a member of the firm of 
Bass, Cleveland & Bissell, which later, on 
the retirement of Mr. Bass, became Cleve 
land & Bissell. 

Mr. Cleveland now entered upon a career 
that soon made him a person of national 
importance. In 1881 he was chosen mayor 
of Buffalo by the largest majority ever giv- 
en to a candidate for that office, in an elec- 
tion in which the Republicans carried the 
state ticket in Buffalo by a vote exceeding 
the Qeveland majority by nearly one-half. 
In his inaugural address he first voiced the 
sentiment, "public office is a public trust," 
which was ever afterward a dominating 
principle in his political faith, in these 
words : 

It seems to me that a successful and 
faithful administration of the Government 
of our city may be accomplished by con- 
stantly bearing in mind that we are the 
trustees and agents of our fellow-citizens, 
holding their funds in sacred trust, to be 
expended for their benefit, that we should 
at all times be prepared to render an honest 
account of them, touching the manner of 
their expenditure ; and that the affairs of 
the city should be conducted as far as pos- 
sible upon the same principles as a good 
business man manages his private concerns. 

In the warfare on official corruption and 
extravagance which he at once undertook, 
he wielded the power of veto with a vigor 
never before known in this country, and it 
is a matter of record that by this means 
alone, in the first six months of his ad- 
ministration, he saved the city nearly $1,- 

0(X),000. 



One year later he was called by his party 
to "go up higher," and in the election of 
1882 he was elected governor of the State 
of New York by the remarkable plurality 
of 192,854, over Charles J. Folger, the 
Republican, — and by many supposed to 
be the national administration, — candidate, 
and a majority over all candiilates of 151,- 
742. In this office he observed without de- 
viation the principles and line of conduct 
that had characterised his Buffalo mayoralty 
administration ; and he faced the larger 
problems and conditions with a like earn- 
estness, courage, and independence. Here, 
also, the veto power never slumbered. 

By this time his party, as well as the 
country at large, had come to recognize in 
him one of its stanchest and most promis- 
ing leaders. His name naturally suggested 
itself for the highest honor that an Ameri- 
can citizen can attain, and before his term 
as governor was half over it was conceded 
by the politicians of all parties that he 
would be the next Democratic candidate 
for the office of President. The Demo- 
cratic National Convention of 1884 was 
..ild in Chicago, and there Mr. Cleveland 
received 683 votes, or 126 more than was 
necessary for a choice, subsequently re- 
ceiving the unanimous vote of the conven- 
tion for the Presidental nomination, with 
Thomas A. Hendricks, of Indiana, for 
Vice-President. In the ensunig election 
there were four candidates in the field : 
Democratic, Grover Cleveland, of New 
York ; Republican, James G. Blaine, of 
Maine ; Labor and Greenback, Benjamin F. 
Butler, of Massachusetts ; and Prohibition, 
John P. St. John, of Kansas. Tlie total 
popular vote was 10,067,610, of which Mr. 
Cleveland received 4,874,986, and Mr. 
Blaine, his closest opponent, 4,851,981 ; and 
the total electoral vote was 401, of which 
Mr. Cleveland had 219, and Mr. Blaine, 
182, a majority of 37 for Mr. Cleveland. 

In his inaugural address of March 4, 
1885, Mr. Cleveland announced his un- 
qualified adhesion to the Monroe Doctrine 



28 



BIOGRAPHICAL CYCLOPEDIA 



in dealing with foreign nations ; urged the 
strictest economy in the administration of 
national finances ; upheld the laws against 
Mormon polygamy and the importation 
of undesirable alien laborers ; and asserted 
that the people demanded the application 
of business principles to public affairs, and 
that those who worthily seeking public em- 
ployment have a right to insist that merit 
and competency be recognized, instead of 
party subserviency, or the surrender of 
honest political belief. His declaration 
that, with the exception of officials charged 
with the execution of the policy of the ad- 
ministration, no removals would take place 
except for cause, brought him into his first 
serious conflict with his party, which threw 
in his face the old Jackson slogan, "to the 
victors belong the spoils." His subsequent 
assertion that "offensive partisanship" 
would be a ground for removal did not go 
far toward assuaging the ruffled party spirit, 
although very many Republicans were re- 
moved for this now familiar cause. 

The most important features of his first 
administration were his persistent efforts 
to bring about a reduction of the tariff on 
the necessaries of life; his recommenda- 
tions for the suspension of compulsary sil- 
ver coinage, the strengthening of the navy, 
and the extension of the principle of civil 
service reform ; his successful contest with 
the senate over his refusal to submit to it 
the papers on file in the department relating 
to the causes for which certain officials had 
been removed ; his forcing the great cattle 
corporations and ranchmen to vacate In- 
dian lands and remove their fences in the 
Indian Territory; and his unprecedented 
use of the veto power, especially against 
private pension bills. A pleasing personal 
feature was his marriage in the White 
House, on June 2, 1886, to Miss Frances 
Folsom, a daughter of his former law part- 
ner. 

President Cleveland's annual message of 
1887 was wholly devoted to the policy of 
tariff reform, and was the basic cause of 
his defeat for a second term in the follow- 



ing year, as it united the Republican party 
in defense of the protective system, while 
the president's party called for a tariff for 
revenue only. The Democratic National 
Convention, in June, 1888, unanimously re- 
nominated Mr. Cleveland with Allan G. 
Thurman, of Ohio, for Vice-President, 
while the Republican Convention nomin- 
ated Benjamin Harrison, of Indiana, for 
President, and Levi P. Morton, of New 
York, for Vice-President. The dominating 
issue of the campaign was the tariff. In 
the election, Mr. Cleveland received 5,538,- 
233 popular and 168 electoral votes, and 
Mr. Harrison, 5,440,216 popular and 233 
electoral votes, the latter, with the smaller 
popular vote, winning by 65 electoral votes. 
At the close of his first administration, Mr. 
Cleveland retired to New York, and there 
resumed private practice. 

At the session of Congress following the 
election a tariff reform bill, bearing the 
name of Representative Mills, was passed 
in the House and killed in the Senate by 
the Republican majority, and in the session 
of 1890 another bill, bearing the name of 
Representative, afterward President, Mc- 
Kinley, was passed by a Republican ma- 
jority in both houses. The year 1890 wit- 
nessed an overwhelming democratic victory 
in the congressional elections, caused large- 
ly by the Republican tariff bill, and in 1892 
both Messrs. Harrison and Cleveland re- 
ceived their party renominations, with 
Whitelaw Reid, of New York, and Adlai 
E. Stevenson, of Illinois, for Vice-Presi- 
dent, respectively. In this election, Mr. 
Cleveland received 5,556,918 popular and 
2"]^ electoral votes, and Mr. Harrison 5,- 
176,108 popular and 145 electoral votes, 
Mr. Cleveland winning by 132 electoral 
votes. A significant feature of this elec- 
tion was a popular vote of 1,041,028 for 
James B. Weaver, of Iowa, the Populist 
candidate, the largest vote ever polled by 
that party. 

On his second inauguration Mr. Cleve- 
land's party found itself in control of 
the Presidency of the Senate and the House 



BIOGRAPHICAL CYCLOPEDIA 



29 



of Representatives for the first time in 
thirty-six years. But ominous clouds were 
rising. The Populists, among other prin- 
ciples, were pledged to the free coinage of 
silver; a large section of the Democratic 
party also favored free silver, and the Re- 
publicans charged the panic which occurred 
early in 1893 to a fear of further Demo- 
cratic tariff legislation. A special session 
of Congress was held, to which the Presi- 
dent earnestly recommended the repeal of 
the silver-purchase clause of the Sherman 
Act of 1890, and after a memorable strug- 
gle a repealing act was passed and became a 
law. 

The revision of the tariff was again 
taken up by Congress at its December ses- 
sion. A bill, bearing the name of Repre- 
sentative Wilson, was approved by the 
President, passed in the House, amended 
beyond practical value in the Senate, and 
allowed to become a law without the Presi- 
dent's signature, he not wishing to veto it 
because the Senate had permitted a few 
desirable provisions to remain in it. The 
financial depression following the panic and 
a wide-spread lack of harmony in the 
Democratic party led to a popular revulsion 
in the congressional elections of 1894 and 
an overwhelming Republican victory, leav- 
ing the President with but feeble support 
by his party, by Congress, and by the peo- 
ple. Yet to the close of his term of office 
he steadfastly maintained a courageous and 
independent attitude that comported with 
his high ideas of public service, and 
never manifested sensitiveness under criti- 
cism. 

Other conspicuous acts of his second ad- 
ministration were his private sale of $62,- 
000,000 in four per cent, thirty-year bonds 
to maintain the gold reserve in 1895, after 
Congress had refused to authorize the is- 
sue of three per cent, bonds payable in gold, 
this act being bitterly criticised at the time 
but later acknowledged as having saved the 
nation's credit; his withdrawal from the 



Senate of the treaty negotiated by the Har- 
rison administration for the anne.xation of 
Hawaii, and his termination of the Ameri- 
can protectorate over the islands ; his forc- 
ing Great Britain to agree to arbitrate her 
boundary quarrel with Venezuela, after a 
special message to Congress in which he 
vigorously upheld the Monroe Doctrine and 
intimated the possibility of forceful alterna- 
tive measures ; and his dispatch of Federal 
troops to Chicago during the great railroad 
strike of 1894, an act that was strongly re- 
sented by Governor Altgeld, of Illinois, but 
which ended the strike and was commended 
by both houses of Congress. 

At the expiration of his second term Mr. 
Cleveland retired to private life in Prince- 
ton, N. J. Soon afterward he was chosen 
a trustee of Princeton University, and a 
lectureship on public affairs was there es- 
tablished for him, under which he delivered 
a series of lectures, largely dealing with his 
official policies, and published in 1904. un- 
der the title of "Presidential Problems." 
In 1905 he was selected as one of the trus- 
tees of the majority of stock of the Equit- 
able Life Assurance Society, of New York, 
and after the Armstrong insurance investi- 
gation he became chairman and general 
counsel of the Association of Life Insur- 
ance Presidents in New York, a relation 
he held till his death, which occurred in 
Princeton, N. J., June 24, 1908. 

After his death the tributes paid to his 
life and work, in all jiarts of the world and 
by leading representatives of every voca- 
tion in American activities, united in form- 
ing the ]iicture of a man of exceptional de- 
votion to duty, of inflexible determination 
to do that which was right and just de- 
spite criticism ; a man of powerful intellect, 
well-poised judgment, and keen, analytical 
mind ; a man prompt, bold, and practical of 
action in emergencies ; and a man who had 
supreme confidence in the sober sense of his 
fellow -citizens. 



3° 



BIOGRAPHICAL CYCLOPEDIA 



THE BIGELOW FAMILY 

NEW JERSEY 



THE Charter of the Governor and Com- 
pany of Massachusetts Bay was grant- 
ed by England, in 1629, and under this chart- 
er, many settlements were made around Bos- 
ton, that of Watertown in 1630. The set- 
tlers were principally from Eastern Eng- 
land of a distinctive stock, bred from the 
purest German crossed with Scandinavian 
blood. 

Jolin Bigelow was one of these settlers. 
Born in Wrentham, England, in 1617, ar- 
riving in Watertown, he married Mary 
Warren, daughter of John Warren, of the 
Mayflower Company, August 12, 1642. This 
was the first marriage of public record in 
Watertown; and it was succeeded by lines 
of descendants in Massachusetts, Connecti- 
cut, New Jersey, New York, and other 
states. John Bigelow served in the Pequod 
and other Indian wars, and also held several 
colonial civil offices. He died July 14, 1703. 
His first born son, John, died childless. His 
second son, Jonathan, born in Watertown, 
December 11, 1646, married Rebecca Shep- 
herd and settled in Hartford, Connecticut. 

Jonathan Bigelow's eldest son, also Jona- 
than, married Mabel Edwards, daughter of 
Reverend Timothy Edwards, and was the 
father of Adjutant Timothy Bigelow in the 
Canada expedition, and the grandfather of 
Lieutenant Timothy Bigelow, who died at 
Fort Stanwix in 1746: hence the name Tim- 
othy was afterwards given to Colonel Tim- 
othy Bigelow, the intimate associate of Otis 
Warren, and other patriots, and the Com- 
mandant at West Point at the close of the 
Revolution, and to others of the family of 
later distinction. 

Jonathan's second son, John, grandson of 
John of Watertown, was born in Hartford 
in 1679 ; married Abigail Richards, January 
II, 1710, and settled in Hanover, New Jer- 
sey, about 1 71 5. A contract in the New 
Jersey Historical Society's Archives, dated 
June 15, 1718, between him, David Ogden 



and others, locates him in Newark in 1718. 
He was the first Collector of Hanover, then 
comprising all of the present Morris Coun- 
ty, in 1723. His father gave him a farm of 
two hundred and seventy acres in Glaston- 
bury, Connecticut, November 13, 1709. He 
sold a part of this farm, December 23, 1716. 
In a deed for the other part, dated Decem- 
ber 8, 1729, he is described as of Hanover, 
Hunterdon County, Province of West Jer- 
sey. 

Many colonists came from Connecticut in 
17 15-1720 seeking gold and silver ores. 
They settled Whippany, the oldest town 
in Morris County, and named the Pequan- 
noc River after the turbulent Pequannoc of 
Connecticut. John Bigelow was one of 
these colonists. Gold and silver ores were 
not available to increase their riches. The 
Attorney General and the Solicitor General 
of England advised the Lords Commis- 
sioners of Trade and Plantations that royal 
mines — gold and silver — remained the prop- 
erty of the Crown, and only base mines — • 
iron and copper — passed to the grantees of 
the lands. The processes for making iron 
in vogue in Connecticut were known to 
these colonists ; they developed iron mines, 
and built forges in Morris County. The 
Bigelows became iron makers and farmers, 
So late as 1769 John and Aaron Bigelow, 
grandsons of John of Hanover, owned and 
operated the White Meadow Forge and 
property of 300 acres, near Rockaway. John 
of Hanover died July 25, 1733 ; his wife 
Abigail (Richards) Bigelow, September 5, 
1749. Both are buried in the "Old Whip- 
pany Burying Ground," the oldest burying 
ground in the oldest town in Morris Coun- 
ty, by the side of John Richards, the donor 
of the ground for pious uses. Their chil- 
dren : John. Daniel, Samuel, Jonathan, 
Joshua, and daughters were born in Whip- 
pany. 

John of Hanover's first born son — John, 







^ x'^'J^^fSS^^^^S Nx 



^^^f^M^^ 




BIOGRAPHICAL CYCLOPEDIA 



31 



was a mine owner and a farmer. He mar- 
ried Elizabeth Dickerson, and died in Whip- 
pany in 1773. His sons — John, Aaron. 
Moses, Timothy, and daughters survived 
him. In the New Hampshire Historical 
Society's Library is a paper termed the 
"Pequannoc Remonstrance." dated May, 
1776, and signed by 180 freeholders of Pe- 
quannoc Township, Morris County. This 
paper expresses in forcible language hostil- 
ity to the English Crown, and furnishes 
proof of the disloyality of the influential 
freeholders of that locality. All the adult 
males of the Bigelow family in Morris 
County — Daniel, Josiah, Aaron, Jonathan 
and Jabez, singed this paper. John was in 
Canada, Timothy and Moses not of age, 
and Samuel and Joshua lived in other coun- 
ties. Samuel, in Monmouth County, signed 
a similar paper, and entering the rebel 
naval service became a Captain re- 
nowned for his bravery and activity. John 
and Aaron were Captains in the land forces, 
and took part in many battles. J. F. Tut- 
tle. D. D., President of Wabash University, 
in his unpublished manuscripts in posses- 
sion of the Historical Society narrates in- 



cidents of their conspicuous gallantry, told 
by David Gorden, a Revolutionary soldier 
of Morris County. 

Timothy Bigclozv was born in Whippany, 
New Jersey, November 21, 1763. When 
sixteen years of age he volunteered in the 
rebel army, was engaged in many battles and 
present at the Yorktown surrender. He 
married, after the war, Hannah Ogden 
Meeker and established his home at Lyons 
Farms, now Newark. His wife partici- 
pated in warlike scenes in that locality and 
often fled from her father's house to es- 
cape the British and Hessian soldiers ravag- 
ing the country. Of reserved and quiet 
manners he found employment in domestic 
affairs and the care of his family, but was 
interested in educational matters to the ex- 
tent of acting for some years as one of the 
Board of Trustees of the "Old Stone 
School House," a landmark of the neigh- 
borhood. He died April 8, 1847, ^g^d 84 
years; and his wife. May 23, 1852, aged 86 
years. He left one son Moses, a biography 
of whom here follows,- — and several daugh- 
ters. 



MOSES BIGELOW 

NEWARK 



M 



OSES BIGELOW, son of Timothy 
and Hannah Ogden Bigelow, was 
born in the family homestead, Lyons Farms 
(Newark), January 12, 1800. His boyhood 
was passed at his birthplace, and he attend- 
ed school there and at Elizabethtown. Studi- 
ous and thoughtful from his youth, when 
of age, he had read all the standard books 
at hand, and excelled in many branches of 
knowledge, particularly in mathematics. He 
became a law student in the office of Gov- 
ernor William Pennington, and always en- 
joyed legal studies in a desultory way. His 
fondness for literary pursuits gave a do- 
mestic turn to his habits, and his evenings 



after his marriage were given to his family 
and to his books. From the year 1821, for 
more than a half century, he was promin- 
ently identified with Newark manufactur- 
ing. 

Co-operating with John P. Jackson and 
J. M. Meeker, representing Newark citi- 
zens in 1835, he brought about the incor- 
poration of the Morris & Essex Railroad. 
He also drew and obtained the charter of 
the Mechanics Fire and Marine Insurance 
Company, long a prosperous institution. He 
was an incorporator and a director of the 
Bank of New Jersey, the Howard Savings 
Institution, the Firemens Insurance Com- 



32 



BIOGRAPHICAL CYCLOPEDIA 



pany: the Republic Trust Company, the 
Citizens Gas Light Company, and other lo- 
cal companies. He was the first President 
of the New Jersey Society for the Preven- 
tion of Cruelty to Animals, and for many 
years a faithful trustee of the Trenton Asy- 
lum for the Insane by appointment of the 
Supreme Court. 

In 1856, he was elected the first Demo- 
cratic Mayor of Newark and administered 
city affairs so justly that he was re-elected 
four times. He was well equipped for a 
successful politician. He had a fine pres- 
ence, benevolent manner, strong sincerity, 
superior intelligence, and an unsullied repu- 
tation. He was cautious, reticent, inde- 
pendent, truthful, dignified, firm and 
ambitious; his conduct was uniform- 
ly even and correct in the privacy 
of home and in the publicity of atTairs ; but 
his pride withheld him from unseemly ef- 
forts to advance his fortune, yet his ability, 
character and popularity were appreciated, 
although he never had an elective office ex- 
cept that of Mayor. 

As Mayor he had made block maps of the 
city to facilitate taxation and numbering of 
houses; procured the establishment of sink- 
ing funds to extinguish the public debt ; 
brought about the purchase of private wa- 
ter rights, and the formation of the New- 
ark Aqueduct Board ; organized a Police 
Department, a Dispensary of Medicines for 
the Poor, and a Board of Health ; and ob- 
tained a codification of the city ordinances, 
and the alteration or repeal of many ob- 
noxious laws. The city financial affairs 
were his especial care during the Civil War; 
all public loans were negotiated by him and 
his plans were approved and adopted by the 
Common Council. 

He married, February 4, 1836, Julia Ann 
Breckenridge Fowler, daughter of the 
learned mineralogist Dr. Samuel Fowler, of 
Franklin, Sussex County, and granddaugh- 
ter of Colonel Mark Thomson, an officer of 
the revolution, a deputy of the Provincial 
Congress and a Member of Congress in 
Washington's time. His wife had the ad- 



vantages of the best associations and 
schools of her time, in Elizabethtown. Mor- 
ristown and New York, and the social bene- 
fits of several seasons in Washington with 
her father, a Member of Congress, before 
her marriage in 1836. The family home 
was at 1020 Broad street, Newark, and they 
had five children born in Newark — Samuel 
F., of whom hereafter ; Moses, Julia, Fred- 
eric and Josephene. 

Moses married Eliza Rebecca Fowler, 
daughter of Colonel Samuel Fowler of 
Franklin, Sussex County, granddaughter of 
General John Mifflin Brodhead of Pennsyl- 
vania, and great-granddaughter of Colonel 
Robert Ogden of New Jersey. He was a 
prominent citizen of Newark for many years 
(1860-1897), inherited many of his father's 
traits, and was a promoter, trustee and 
treasurer of the Newark Technical School, 
trustee and treasurer of the New Jersey 
Reform School for Boys, a governor of the 
Essex Club, and a member of the Essex 
Country Club ; he held several political of- 
fices without emoluments and was several 
times a delegate to Democratic National and 
State Conventions. He died March 26, 
1897, and left children — Moses, Frederic, 
John Ogden and Henrietta. 

Frederic, the third son of Mayor Moses 
Bigelow, married Harriet Van Rensselaer 
Bleecker of New York, and was a promi- 
nent citizen of Newark, much interested in 
religious afifairs and for a time treasurer 
and vestryman of Grace Episcopal Church. 
After traveling extensively seeking health, 
he died at his home Montrose, near New- 
ark, July 13, 1871, and left children — Julia, 
the wife of Francis H. Gellatly of South 
Orange, Harriet Van Rensselaer and Fred- 
erica. 

Josephene, the youngest daughter of 
Mayor Moses Bigelow, married John C. 
Kirtland, of East Orange, and resides in 
that town. She has three daughters — Jose- 
phene, married to Russell Colgate of Llew- 
ellyn Park, May, and Katharine Campbell. 

Mayor Moses Bigelow died in Newark, 
January 10, 1874. 





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BIOGRAPHICAL CYCLOPEDIA 



33 



SAMUEL FOWLER BIGELOW 

NEWARK 



SAMUEL FOWLER BIGELOW is the 
eldest son of Mayor Moses Bige- 
low and Julia Ann Breckenridge Bige- 
low of Newark. Prepared at the best 
schools — Newark Academy, Ashland Hall, 
and Freehold Institute, — he was matricu- 
lated at Princeton College in 1853, and was 
graduated in 1857. After the prescribed 
course of law studies under Amzi Dodd of 
Newark and Jehiel G. Shipman of 
Belvidere, he was admitted to the New Jer- 
sey Bar as an attorney at law in i860, as a 
counselor in 1866; and subsequently to the 
New York, California and different United 
States' bars. 

He was made City Attorney of Newark 
in 1863, Judge of the Newark City Court 



in 1868, United States Attorney for New 
Jersey by President Cleveland, Supreme 
Court Commissioner by the New Jersey Su- 
preme Court, Special Master in Chancery 
by Chancellor William T. McGill, and 
United States Commissioner for New Jer- 
sey by Judge Andrew Kirkpatrick of the 
United States District Court. He was ten- 
dered and declined the position of Gov- 
ernor's Aid with the rank of Colonel by 
Governor Joseph D. Bedle, and that of 
Judge of the Newark District Court by 
Governor R. S. Green. The district courts 
were established chiefly through his 
instrumentality. He is unmarried, and 
practices law in his native city of New- 
ark. 



ROBERT CAREY 

JERSEY CITY 



ROBERT CAREY was born in Jersey 
City, New Jersey, (Greenville section) 
September 16, 1872. His father, Thomas 
Carey, was a member of the bar of both 
New York and New Jersey, and he was 
also a member of the New Jersey legisla- 
ture. 

The subject of this sketch received his 
early education in public school number 20, 
of Jersey City, and was graduated from the 
Jersey City High School in the class of 
1888. Later he attended the New York 
Law School and received the degree of 
LL.B. from that institution in 1893. He 
read law in the offices of Judges Hudspeth 
and Puster, and was admitted to the bar at 
the November term, 1893. After his ad- 
mission to the bar, Mr. Carey practiced 
for a number of years and was corporation 
attorney of Jersey City from January i, 
1902, until January i, 1908. In 1905 he 



became a partner of Judge Hudspeth, but 
this partnership was dissolved when Mr. 
Carey was appointed, by Governor Fort, 
on May 8, 1908, Judge of the Court of 
Common Pleas of Hudson County. Prior 
to his admission to the bar, he was con- 
nected with several newspapers as a local 
writer. 

Politically, Judge Carey is an ardent and 
steadfast Republican and he has always 
taken an active and influential part in the 
campaigns of that party. He has been es- 
specially active in the equal taxation contro- 
versy, both in the courts and in the legisla- 
ture. In January, 1908, he was appointed a 
member of the State Board of Taxation by 
Governor Fort and served on that board 
until he became Judge of the Court of 
Common Pleas. 

Judge Carey is one of the most popular 
judges on the bench of Hudson County. 



34 



BIOGRAPHICAL CYCLOPEDIA 



He is a member of Bayview Lodge, No. 
40, Free and Accepted Masons, and of 
other fraternal and political organizations. 



He married, in 1899, Cora Gurney, daugh- 
ter of William Gurney of Jersey City, and 
they have two children, Robert and Anna. 



WILLIAM WRIGHT 

NEWARK 



WILLIAM WRIGHT, a successful 
manufacturer of New Jersey during 
the first half of the nineteenth century, and 
for many years one of the conspicuous po- 
litical leaders of the state, serving as mayor 
of Newark, member of congress, and 
United States senator, was born in Clarks- 
town, Rockland County, New York, No- 
vember 13, 1794, the son of Dr. William 
Wright, a graduate of Yale college. He 
was sixth in descent from Benjamin Wright 
who in 1645 emigrated from Bolton-on- 
Swale, Yorkshire, England, to Virginia, re- 
moving about 1650 to Guilford, Connecti- 
cut, and soon afterward to a farm at the 
mouth of Wright's River near Saybrook, 
Connecticut, where the Wright Family in 
this line resided for five successive genera 
tions. 

William Wright was educated with a 
view to a collegiate course, pursuing prepar- 
atory studies in Poughkeepsie, New York, 
but the death of his father, in 1808, made it 
necessary for him to abandon the plans thus 
formed and engage in business. Going to 
Bridgeport, Connnecticut, he entered, as an 
apprentice, the harness manufacturing es- 
tablishment of Anson G. Phelps. While 
living there he was a volunteer for the de- 
fense of Stonington against the British 
forces. After some years in the employ 
ment of Mr. Phelps, he organized, in 
Bridgeport, with William Peet and Sheldon 
Smith, the firm of Peet, Smith, and Com- 
pany, manufacturers of saddlery and har- 
ness. This venture was successful, and a 
branch house was presently opened in 
Charleston, South Carolina. 

In 1821 Mr. Wright removed to Newark, 



New Jersey, and there joined with Mi. 
Smith in the copartnership of Smith and 
Wright (other partners later being Hanford 
Smith, Edwin Van Antwerp, and William 
S. Faitoute), which soon became the lead- 
ing concern of its kind in that city, and for a 
quarter of a century was at the head of the 
leather goods manufacturing industry in 
New Jersey and probably also in the United 
States. The factory of this company was at 
the southeast corner of Broad and Fair 
streets ; a portion of it is still standing. Mr. 
Wright continued in business until about his 
sixtieth year, when he retired. Aside from 
his own extensive affairs, he had an earnest 
and influential part in promoting the devel- 
opment of the manufacturing and financial 
interests of Newark. He was prominent 
in the management of the Newark Mechan- 
ics' Bank and the Mechanics' Insurance 
Company, and was president of the Newark 
Savings Institution from its organization to 
his death. He was also president of the 
Morris & Essex Railroad from the time of 
its inception until his death. 

Though from early life deeply interested 
in political questions, with very decided 
opinions and party predilections, he did not 
become identified with public affairs until 
middle age. In 1840 he was elected mayor 
of Newark on the Whig ticket, and in that 
office he continued for three years. While 
still serving as mayor in 1842, he received a 
nomination for Congress — his opponent be- 
ing the noted William B. Kinney, afterward 
minister to Italy — and was elected. In 1844 
he was re-elected. He sat in the national 
house of representatives from December, 
1843, to March, 1847, making a reputation 





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^ 



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4 



BIOGRAPHICAL CYCLOPEDIA 



35 



as one of the able men of that body. Upon 
his retirement from Congress he was nomi- 
nated for governor of New Jersey in 1847, 
but was defeated. Throughout this period 
of his pohtical career he was a supporter of 
the Whig organization, and he was active in 
advocating the cause of Henry Clay as a 
candidate for the presidency. At the Whig 
national convention of 1848 he was a dele 
gate from New Jersey. 

In the great secession from the Whig par- 
ty during Fillmore's administration he was 
a participant. Entertaining strong convic- 
tions on constitutional issues and on the mo- 
mentous questions of national policy which 
then came up for decision, he felt that the 
Democratic party best represented his prin- 
ciples and views, and from that time he was 
one of its foremost leaders in New Jersey. 
In the campaign of 1852 he supported the 
Democratic nominees. The accession of a 
man of such influence and reputation was 
welcomed by the Democrats of his state, 
and at the legislative election held to fill the 
position of United States senator he was 
the candidate of that party and was chosen 
for the full term running from March 3, 
1853. to March 3, 1859. At the expiration 
of this service he was succeeded by a Re- 
publican, but in 1863 the Democrats again 
gained the ascendancy and he was returned 
for another term in the senate. During his 
first senatorial term he was chairman of the 
committee on manufactures and a member 
of the committee on contingent expenses of 
the senate, and during his second he served 
on the committees on manufactures, public 
lands, and revolutionary claims. 



Senator Wright was a man of remarkable 
capacity and achievement, both in his pri- 
vate and public character. Entering upon 
the serious work of life at the age of four- 
teen, without a father's guidance, he at- 
tained not only a substantial, but, for those 
times, an affluent position. But it is not 
alone, or even principally, in the aspect of 
his personal success that what he accom- 
plished is to be rated; the result of indus- 
trial enterprise, it was of general and large 
benefit to the people of his community and 
his state. Engaging in the maturity of his 
career in public affairs, he was called to re 
sponsible and dignified offices. His politi- 
cal record includes, in succession, selection 
by his fellow-citizens of Newark and New 
Jersey for the four highest positions withui 
their bestowal — mayor, member of Con- 
gress from his district, governor, and 
United States senator, — to three of which 
he was elected, and he had the uncommon 
distinction of being an honored leader of 
two great political parties of totally antago- 
nistic traditions and complexion. In his 
personality he was known for the highest 
ideals, to which all his life conformed. He 
was an earnest and devoted member of the 
Episcopal Church and a generous contribu- 
tor to its work, taking an especial interest in 
the Newark House of Prayer, of which he 
was a leading communicant. 

He married Minerva Peet, daughter of 
William Peet of Bridgeport, Connecticut. 

He died in Newark, November i, 1866, 
being at that time still a member of the 
United States Senate. 



EDWARD H. WRIGHT 

NEWARK 



EDWARD HENRY WRIGHT, of 
Newark, was born in that city, April 5, 
1824, son of the Honorable William 
Wright and Minerva Peet. He was pre- 



pared for college in Saint Paul's School, 
College Point, Long Island, and was gradu- 
ated from the College of New Jersey in 
Princeton in 1844, subsequently receiving 



36 



BIOGRAPHICAL CYCLOPEDIA 



from his alma mater the degree of master 
of arts. Deciding to quahfy himself for 
the legal profession, he pursued studies 
withAlexander Hamilton, of New York, and 
Archer Gifford, of Newark, also attending 
the Harvard Law School; and in 1850 he 
was admitted to the New Jersey bar. 

Previous to that event he had spent some 
time in foreign travel, and, having an in- 
clination for the diplomatic service, he ap- 
plied for the office of secretary of the 
United States legation in St. Petersburg, 
to which he was appointed by President 
Taylor in May, 1850. In this position he 
continued, with a creditable record, for 
four years, when he returned and resumed 
his residence in Newark. L'pon the break- 
ing out of the Civil War he was one of 
the first to volunteer; and in May, i86x, 
one month after the firing on Fort Sumter, 
he received appointment as major of the 
Sixth Cavalry, United States Army, and 
aide-de-camp, with the rank of colonel, on 
the staff of Lieutenant-General Winfield 
Scott. Later, General Scott having retired 
from the command, he was attached to the 
staff of General George B. McClellan, also 
with the rank of colonel. His service was 
marked by courage and soldierly ability. 
"For gallant and meritorious conduct" he 
was honored with recommendation for two 
brevets. 

A life-long resident of Newark, Colonel 
Wright is one of the most useful and re- 
spected, as he is one of the oldest and best 



known citizens of that community. At the 
age of eighty-four he is still active in con- 
nection with various interests and af- 
fairs. Though always much interested in 
the course of political events, and cherish- 
ing earnest convictions — an adherent, like 
his father, of the Democratic party, — he 
has uniformly declined public office. His 
influence as a citizen has not on that ac- 
count, however, been of any restricted na- 
ture; exercised in many directions, it has 
been, and is, of eminent weight and value. 

He is president of the board of managers 
of the New Jersey Home for Disabled Sol- 
diers, having been identified with that insti- 
tution for more than a quarter of 
a century, and he is a member of the 
board of trustees of the Episcopal Fund 
of the diocese of Newark. He is one 
of the directors of the Mutual Benefit 
Life Insurance Company and the Fire- 
men's Insurance Company. The organi- 
zations of which he is a member in- 
clude the Military Order of the Loyal Le- 
gion, the Marcus L. \\'ard Post, G. A. R. 
(of which he has been commander), the 
Union Club of New York, and the Essex 
Club, of Newark (in which he has served 
as vice-president several terms). 

Colonel Wright married, in i860, Doro- 
thea Mason, daughter of the Honorable 
Stevens Thompson Mason, the first gov- 
ernor of the state of Michigan and founder 
of the University of Michigan in Ann Ar- 
bor. 



JOSEPH CROSS 

ELIZABETH 



JOSEPH CROSS, Judge of the United 
States District Court of New Jersey, 
and son of William and Sarah (Lee) 
Cross, was born near Morristown, New 
Jersey, December 29, 1843. His early edu- 
cation was obtained in public schools and in 
Pearl College Seminary, of which D. H. 



Pierson was principal. There he prepared 
for Princeton University from which he 
was graduated in the class of 1865. Im- 
mediately thereafter he began the study of 
law in the office of William J. Magie, now 
Chancellor of New Jersey. He also took a 
course of lectures in the Columbia College 




/. 



a^^z^t^V' 




BIOGRAPHICAL CYCLOPEDIA 



37 



Law School, and was admitted to practice 
as an attorney-at-law in June, 1868, and as 
a counselor in 1871. Upon his admission 
to the bar he was taken into partnership 
by his preceptor, under the firm name of 
Magie & Cross, which relation existed until 
1880, when Mr. Magie was appointed one 
of the justices of the Supreme Court. Judge 
Cross has resided in Elizabeth since the 
spring of 1838, and has always been a 
staunch Republican. In 1888 he was ap- 
pointed Judge of the District Court of the 
city of Elizabeth, but in common with all 
of the other Republican district court 
judges of the State, was legislated out of 
office in April, 1891. 

Judge Cross was elected a member of the 
Assembly from LTnion County in the fall 
of 1893. a'lcl again in 1894. When Speaker 
Holt resigned the chair. May 26th, 1894, 



Mr. Cross was chosen his successor for the 
remainder of the session. In 1895 he was 
re-elected speaker by the unanimous vote 
of his Republican colleagues. In Novem- 
ber, 1898, he was elected Senator, to fill 
the vacancy caused by the resignation of 
Senator Voorhees, who had been nominated 
as the Republican candidate for Governor. 
He was re-elected to the Senate for a 
full temi in 1899 by a plurality of 2,471, be- 
ing an increase of 491 over that of the 
previous year. He was again re-elected in 
1902 by a plurality of 1,186 over James E. 
]\Iartine, his Democratic opponent. He 
served as President of the Senate during 
the session of 1905, and in April of that 
year he was appointed by President Roose- 
velt a Judge of the United States Distrist 
Court for New Jersey. He married Octo- 
ber 19, 1870, Mary P. Whiting. 



ARTHUR B. ARCHIBALD 

JERSEY CITY 



ARTHUR B. ARCHIBALD, one of the 
ablest of the men composing the Hud- 
son County bar, was born in Jersey City, 
New Jersey, July 6th, 1870, his entire ca- 
reer being spent in his native city. He 
comes of a well known family and was edu- 
cated in the public schools. After complet- 
ing his studies he entered the New York 
Law School, from which institution he was 
graduated in the class of 1892. During this 
period he read law in the office of Judge 
Henry Puster, in Jersey City, and later 
with William M. Dougherty. Admitted to 
the bar of New Jersey as an attorney, June 
9, 1892, he immediately established him- 
self in the practice of his profession in Jer- 
sey City, where his abilities speedily at- 
tracted attention and support. Mr. Archi- 
bald was not long in securing a large and 
influential clientele, and has gained an en- 
viable standing in Hudson county legal 
circles. He is engaged in practice and is 
3 



counsel for a number of leading merchants, 
firms and corporations, and is also attorney 
for the Erie Railroad, the Lehigh Valley 
Railroad and the Lackawanna, Delaware & 
Western Railroad in the prosecution of 
criminal cases. 

His name has been identified with much 
litigation of an important character. He 
is a skilled advocate and guards his clients' 
interests with a zeal and effectiveness that 
have given him honorable repute, while his 
professional and personal integrity invites 
confidence and commands esteem. As a 
citizen he is respected and useful, and lie 
is at all times ready to co-operate in any 
movement that tends to advance the ma- 
terial welfare of the city and county in 
which he lives. He is a member of many 
fraternal organizations of Jersey City. He 
is a gentleman of culture and broad intel- 
lectual attainments, and his standing as a law- 
yer is well merited by his professional work. 



38 



BIOGRAPHICAL CYCLOPEDIA 

CHARLES W. PARKER 

JERSEY CITY 



CHARLES W. PARKER, a son of 
Cortlandt and Elizabeth W. (Stites) 
Parker, was born in Newark, New Jersey, 
October 22, 1862. He received his preHmi- 
nary education in Pingry School, Elizabeth, 
New Jersey, and Phillips Academy, Exeter, 
New Hampshire. He was graduated frooi 
Princeton College with honors in 1882 ; read 
law under the direction of his father and in 
Columbia Law School from 1882 to 1885; 
was admitted to the New Jersey bar as an 
attorney in June, 1885, and as a counselor 
at the February term, 1890. He practiced 
his profession in Newark till 1890, and 
thereafter in Bayonne City, and since 1891 
in Jersey City. In 1898 he was appointed 
a District Court Judge for Jersey City, and 
in 1903 he was reappointed. He resigned 
that office in 1903 and accepted an ap 
pointment by Governor Murphy as a Judge 
of the Circuit Court. The appointment was 



unanimously confirmed by the Senate and 
he took his seat on March 2, 1903. This of- 
fice he held until October, 1907, when hi. 
resigned to become a Justice of the Su- 
preme Court, to which office he was nomi- 
nated by Governor Stokes and was unani- 
mously confirmed by the Senate on Sep- 
tember 25, for a full term of seven years. 
He succeeded John Franklin Fort, who had 
resigned upon his nomination as the Repub 
lican candidate for Governor. He served 
as Assistant Adjutant General of the Stat« 
from 1902 to 1907, after twelve years of 
enlisted and commissioned service in the 
Essex Troop and Fourth Regiment, ana 
was aide de camp on the staff of Governor 
Franklin Murphy, during the latter's term 
of office. In politics he is a Republican. 
His term will expire in 1914. His circuit 
comprises the counties of Morris, Bergen 
and Somerset. Population, 204,207. 



CHARLES W. FULLER 



BAYONNE 



CHARLES W. FULLER, one of the 
foremost lawyers of the New Jersey 
bar, and one of the most widely known 
corporation lawyers of the United States, 
was born in New York City, July 2, 1843. 
His parents were Jesse and Elizabeth (Bar- 
tine) Fuller. Through his father he is de- 
scended from Thomas Fuller, a member 
of that immortal band of pilgrims who 
came over in the "Mayflower" in 1620. For 
many generations the family resided near 
Salem, Massachusetts, and many of its 
members displayed their patriotism by par- 
ticipation in the Revolutionary War, sev- 
eral of them being distinguished for brav- 
ery in battle. Through his mother. Colonel 
Fuller is of French Huguenot descent, his 



ancestors being among the first settlers of 
New Rochelle, New York. The best blood 
of the New England colonies, combined 
with that of the French Huguenot, coursing 
through his veins has endowed him with 
those qualities of courage, intellect and 
good nature that have made him success- 
ful as a soldier, lawyer, orator and wit. 

Colonel Fuller received his early educa- 
tion and training in the public schools in 
New York city, where he prepared for en- 
trance into the College of the City of New 
York, in which institution he was actively 
engaged in his studies when the war be- 
tween the states was inaugurated. Patriot- 
ism was one of the qualities which he in- 
herited from his ancestors, and love of 




.i^'-^.r 4f^^^~^-^^-^ 



BIOGRAPHICAL CYCLOPEDIA 



39 



country impelled him to tender his services 
to the government. He enlisted as a private 
in the Seventh Regiment, National Guard, 
State of New York, in which he served for 
three months, when a severe sun-stroke in- 
capacitated him from further duty as a sol- 
dier on the field. 

Returning to New York, he engaged in 
business until 1871, when he removed to 
Bayonne, Hudson County, New Jersey, 
where he has resided continuously ever 
since. During his residence in New York 
he rendered valuable services in the sup- 
pression of the draft riots of 1863 and also 
in the riots of 1871. In 1868, he was ap- 
pointed adjutant of the Fifty-fifth Regi- 
ment, National Guard of New York, in 
i86g was promoted to the rank of major, 
and, in 1871, was commissioned colonel and 
retained the command of the regiment until 
1874, when he resigned. 

Although he had prepared himself for a 
business life, he was endowed by nature 
with a legal mind, and a personality which 
convinced him that the study and practice 
of law was the field in which his talents 
could be best utilized. He entered upon his 
studies with intense devotion and pursued 
them with a diligence born of a fascination 
of the subject. He read law with Edward 
A. S. Man, of Jersey City, and was admit- 
ted to the New Jersey bar as an attorney in 
November, 1879, and as a counselor in 
June, 1884. In 1885, he was also admitted 
to the bar of New York and has since prac- 
ticed his profession in New York and New 
Jersey, making a specialty of corporation 
law, in which he is one of the ablest and 
best known authorities in the United States. 
He is counsel for many large corporations, 
some of which he organized. His profes- 
sional life has been very active and he has 
participated in a number of very important 
cases, arguing at the bar not only of New 
York and New Jersey, but in a number of 
other States and before the Supreme Court 
of the United States. He is still in the 
prime of life, and although he has reach- 
ed a position of eminence in his profession, 



his reputation as a counsel of ability is con- 
stantly growing, and intricate questions are 
frequently placed before him by members 
of the profession from distant parts of the 
country. 

Colonel Fuller has always manifested a 
deep interest in the cause of education. For 
four years he was a member of the Board 
of Education of the City of Bayonne. In 
1885, he was elected, by the New Jersey 
Legislature, a trustee of the State Normal 
School and a member of the State Board 
of Education, filling these positions with 
much ability and inaugurating many re- 
forms and improvements in the state 
schools. In 1886, he was nominated for the 
Assembly, but owing to a severe contest for 
United States senator, was defeated. In 
1887, he was again nominated and was 
elected by over one thousand plurality, but 
resigned in March. 1888, when he was ap- 
pointed State Superintendent of Public In- 
struction by the State Board of Education, 
for a term of three years. 

Following is an extract from the pro- 
ceedings of the New Jersey House of As- 
sembly at a meeting held March 22, 1888, 
as published in the ]Vcekly State Gazette 
under date of March 29, 1888. 

"Colonel Fuller sent a communication to 
the House stating that, having been elect- 
ed State Superintendent of Public Instruc- 
tion, and the time having arrived to begin 
the duties of the office, he was obliged to 
resign his seat in the House as a Represent- 
ative from the Sixth District of Hudson 

County. 

"Mr. Emley thereupon offered the fol- 
lowing : 

"Whereas, the Speaker has laid before 
the House the resignation of the Honorable 
Charles W. Fuller, a member thereof, who 
leaves to assume the duties of State Super- 
intendent of Public Instruction : 

"Resolved, that this resignation be ac- 
cepted, and that in accepting the same, the 
members of this House tender to Superin- 
tendent Fuller their hearty congratulations, 
wishing him a full measure of success: and 
that they regret the necessity for the sever- 
ance of relations which have been rendered 
invariably pleasant and cordial by his genial 
manner and warm-hearted nature, and the 



40 



BIOGRAPHICAL CYCLOPEDIA 



withdrawal of services which have been 
rendered of great vahie to the State by his 
eloquence.and distinguished abiHty. 

"Mr. Emley said that the departure of 
Colonel Fuller leaves behind it feelings of 
most profound regret, and it hardly could 
be otherwise, because of the prominent part 
he had taken in the proceedings of the 
House. He was foremost in all debate, and 
when extraordinary services were needed, 
he was always in his seat. He was ever 
ready for the fray, and if his sarcasm was 
sharp, it was more from zeal than from 
personal motives. He was strong in his 
convictions, unflinching in his courage, and 
his integrity was of the highest order. He 
could go home and say that he had tried to 
do his duty to his constituents, and to serve 
the State. He had rare social qualities, — 
was always kind, courteous and generous. 
He had the esteem of the whole House, and 
it is with profound regret that he is partea 
with. He had the kindest personal feelings 
of all the members of the House, irrespec- 
tive of party, and he is wished the same 
success he achieved here, and a hearty God- 
speed." 

After serving in this capacity for eleven 
months, he was legislated out of office by a 
Democratic legislature, which removed the 
power of appointment from the State Board 
of Education and invested it in the gover- 
nor, with a confirmation by the senate. 

Ever a consistent friend of the cause of 
education. Colonel Fuller's influence upon 
the school system of New Jersey has been 
marked and he has done much for its ad- 
vancement. He also served as city attor- 
ney of Bayonne for five years, during which 
time he evinced an unusual knowledge of 
municipal law, a branch of the profession 
upon which he is considered an authority. 
He has been a member of the Sinking Fund 
Commission of Bayonne since its inception. 
He was appointed by Governor Voorhees 
one of the commissioners of the State Sew- 
age Commission, a position which he held 
for eleven years. As a member of the Joint 
Waterways Committee, which was com- 
posed of three members from seven boards 
of trade. Colonel Fuller was largely instru- 
mental, after several years of hard work, 
in securing an appropriation of about seven 



hundred thousand dollars for the deepening 
of the channel in the Arthur Kill and New- 
ark Bay. For this he received no compen- 
sation except the knowledge that he had 
performed a public service. 

Colonel Fuller is an ardent and steadfast 
Republican, and in all his capacities has 
earned and won the confidence, respect and 
approval of all classes, regardless of party 
affiliations. No matter which political party 
has been in power in Bayonne, his interest 
in the city and in city affairs is such that 
every administration has called upon him 
for assistance. His devotion to the inter- 
ests of his home city and his disinterested 
labors on behalf of its advancement have 
probably never been equalled by any citizen 
of any city in the United States. In appre- 
ciation of what he had done for his city and 
fellow citizens it was determined to honor 
him by a banquet, to which many of the 
most prominent of the citizens of the State 
were to be invited. The event occurred on 
the 23rd of April. 1908, and was attended ■ 
by over two hundred of the leading citizens 
of Bayonne, besides invited guests from 
other parts of the State. Eulogistic ad- 
dresses, outlining many of Colonel Fuller's 
disinterested acts, were delivered by several 
of the most eminent men of the State, 
many of whom had known him from the 
time when he took up his residence in Bay- 
onne, and all of whom united in an en- 
deavor to confer upon him praise for his 
useful career. The occasion was one that 
will ever be remembered by those in at- 
tendance, and it has been claimed that there 
were on that day more men of prominence 
in the City of Bayonne than at any time be- 
fore or since. As a further mark of esteem 
and in commemoration of the event, his 
fellow citizens presented him with a loving 
cup. 

As an orator, Colonel Fuller is widely 
and favorably known and few men are 
more popular or enjoy a more enviable rep- 
utation as a public speaker. He has actively 
participated in many political campaigns, 
advocating strongly, with all the ability at 



BIOGRAPHICAL CYCLOPEDIA 



41 



his command, those principles of repubhcan 
doctrine which have done so much to up- 
build and preserve our national fortunes. 
Not only are his oratorical abilities called 
upon in political campaigns, but he is also 
constantly requested to deliver after dinner 
addresses, public readings, and lectures for 
charitable and social objects. He is a stu- 
dent and a lover of literature, possessing, 
in addition to one of the best private law 
libraries in the city, a large and well select- 
ed library of general literature. He has 
contributed various articles to the press and 
keeps in close contact with the affairs of the 
day. He is a member of the Newark Bay 
Club, the New Jersey Country Club, and 
the Union League Club, of New Jersey ; 
the Twilight, Lotos, and Lawyers' clubs, 
of New York ; the Veterans of the Seventh 
Regiment, National Guard of New York ; 
the Friendly Sons of St. Patrick ; the Hud- 
son County Bar Association, and the New 
Jersey State Bar Association. He is also 
prommently identified with George Wash- 



ington Post, No. 103, Grand Army of the 
Re]5ublic, Department of New York, and 
the Society of the Army of the Poto- 
mac. 

He has been a resident of Bayonne, New 
Jersey, for thirty-seven years. During that 
time he has been a powerful factor in the 
material and intellectual advancement of 
the city. He has been a force, and a force 
in the right direction, at the bar, in politics, 
and in the cause of education. 

Colonel Fuller married, May 29, 1867, 
Matilda B. Williams, daughter of Samuel 
T. Williams, a prominent manufacturer of 
New York, and his wife, Rebecca (John- 
son) Williams. They have two children, 
Harry W. and Fanny S. The son, Harry 
W. P\dler, was graduated from Rutgers 
College in 1891 and is now General I\Ian- 
ager of the Washington Traction and Elec- 
tric Light Company, of Washington, Dis- 
trict of Columbia. The daughter, Fanny S. 
Fuller, was married, June 15, 1891, to 
Major Lee Toadvine. 



JOHN EDWARD SMITH 

NEWARK 



JOHN EDWARD SMITH, a prominent 
and successful member of the Essex 
County bar, and also a member of the New 
York bar, was born in Washington, Dis- 
trict Columbia, August 24, 1866. He is the 
son of John Edward Smith, who was, in his 
day, a leading lawyer in Washington and a 
man of influence and standing in that city 
and Baltimore, being high in the Masonic 
order, in which fraternity he was a thirty- 
second degree Scottish Rite Mason and a 
member of the Royal Order of Scot- 
land. 

Mr. Smith is descended from old and 
notable American ancestry on both the pa- 
ternal and maternal sides, his mother be- 
ing a daughter of Professor E. L. An- 
drews, of New York City, while his grand- 



father, John L. Smith, also ranked high as 
a lawyer, being a partner of the late Judge 
William Alexander, of Baltimore, Mary- 
land, and a gentleman wIki was esteemcil 
in Baltimore and wherever he was known, 
as well as at the national capital. The 
younger Smith is essentially a self-made 
man in all that the term implies. He owes 
his education solely to his own efforts, ac- 
quiring knowledge through his persever- 
ence and desire to learn, coupled with an 
intelligence that is far above the ordinary. 
He acquired understanding speedily, thanks 
to his intellectual gifts, and even as a boy 
he displayed that mental strength which has 
been so characteristic of the man. 

Having decided upon the law as his pro- 
fession, he studied with all his heart and. 



4^ 



BIOGRAPHICAL CYCLOPEDIA 



on being admitted to the bar, attained suc- 
cess in his chosen career almost from the 
beginning. He is known to-day as one of 
the ablest practitioners at the Essex County 
bar, and he has a large and influential clien- 
tile. His office is in Newark, where he 
is a citizen enjoying the confidence of all 
with whom he holds relations. He car- 
ries on a general practice and has been con- 
nected with important litigation as coun- 
sel, acquitting himself with a skill that has 
added greatly to his reputation. He repre- 
sents some important interests in a pro- 
fessional way and is noted for the care 
with which he guards his clients' affairs. 

A liberal Democrat in his political views, 
he served as school commissioner in 1906- 
07. He is a member of a number of or- 
ganizations, including the Knights of Py- 



thias, the Modern Woodmen, the Royal 
Arcanum, and the North End Club, of 
Newark. He is an Episcopalian in his re- 
ligious faith and is, personally, a gentleman 
of warm sympathies and generous im- 
pulses. He is popular in an extended circle 
of friends and acquaintances, and has in- 
herited to a marked degree those peculiar 
social and professional qualities which dis- 
tinguished both his father and his grand- 
father. He has prospered in his career to 
an extent that is worthy of note and he has 
thoroughly merited the substantial success 
and pronounced prestige that has come to 
him. His integrity, both as citizen and law- 
yer, has never been called in question. He 
married, in Newark, Grace M. Johnson, 
who, like himself, is a descendant of old 
and prominent American ancestral stock. 



GEORGE WASHINGTON JAGLE 

NEWARK 



GEORGE WASHINGTON JAGLE, 
son of Herman and Sophie (Hocken- 
jos) Jagle, was born in New York City, 
June 6, 1867. There he resided until eleven 
years of age when, after the death of his 
parents, he went to Newark, New Jersey, 
to live with his uncle and resided there ever 
since. He attended the Green Street Ger- 
man and English School and also the 
Chestnut Street public school, from which 
he entered the New High School and was 
graduated from the commercial department 
of that school in the class of 1884. He 
then became a clerk in the store of his 
uncle, the late J. J. Hockenjos; after the 
latter's death, in 1891, he succeeded to the 
business and the firm of J. J. Hockenjos 
Company was then incorporated. As a man- 
ager of mercantile affairs, Mr. Jagle dis- 
played remarkable ability from the time that 
he entered the employment of his uncle. Un- 
der his able control, the affairs of the busi- 
ness of which he is at the head has ad- 



vanced successfully, and he has made it 
the most important establishment of its 
kind in the city of Newark. 

Mr. Jagle's business interests are not 
confined to the company of which he is the 
head. He is also a stockholder and direc- 
or of several important financial institu- 
tions. He is director of the Iron Bound 
Trust Company ; trustee of the Franklin 
Savings Bank ; director of the Court House 
Building and Loan Association, the Federal 
Building and Loan Association, and the 
Fireman's Building and Loan Association ; 
and treasurer of the Four Comer Building 
and Loan Association. He is also a direc- 
tor of the Bureau of Associated Charities 
of the city of Newark, and is deeply inter- 
ested in that benevolent organization. 

Politically Mr. Jagle has been a strong 
and zealous Republican, and has actively 
participated in the campaigns of his party. 
He was appointed play ground commis- 
sioner by Mayor Doremus in 1906 and re- 



* 



,f- 



■i 



> 




^ 1^ 





BIOGR.\PHICAL CYCLOPEDIA 



43 



appointed by ]\Iayor Haussling. By Gov- 
ernor Stokes he was appointed one of the 
board of managers of the Xew Jersey 
State Hospital in Morris Plains, and is a 
member of that body at the present time. 
He is a member of the Republican Indian 
League, of the Republican County Commit- 
tee, and of the Seventh ^^'ard Republican 
Club. In 1908 he was unanimously en- 
dorsed for the nomination for the mayor- 
alty, but declined to run because of the 
pressure of his large business interests. A 
lover of outdoor sports, he is interested in 
athletics and does much to encourage the 
young to engage in athlectic contests. He 
is a consistent friend of the youths, and has 
been honored by the Newark Boys Club by 
election to the treasureship of that societ}'. 
Endowed by nature with strong personal 
force and full of magnetic power, he has 
drawn around him a large company of ad- 
miring friends. His advancement in his 



business life has been both rapid and strong 
and he has earned for himself, through his 
own exertions, a high place in the business 
circles of his cit}- and state. His advice and 
counsel are constantly sought by managers 
of the various organizations with which he 
is connected, and he has become recognized 
as a farseeing, progressive man of affairs. 
He is a member of St. John's Lodge Xo. i, 
Free and Accepted Masons ; L'nion Chapter 



No. 



/> 



Royal Arch Masons; Damascus 



Commandery No. 5, Knights Templar; 
Salaam Temple, Ancient Order of the Mys- 
tic Shrine; Corintliian Council 644, Royal 
Arcanum; Unity Conclave, Independent 
Order of Hepatasophs; and Newark Lodge, 
Benevolent Protective Order of Elks. 

He married, April 6, 1903, Elizabeth 
Caroline Iffland, the eldest daughter of 
John Iffland, of Newark. They are the 
parents of two children: George John and 
Helen Anna Jagle. 



JOHN WILLIAM GRIGGS 

PATERSOX 



JOHN WILLIAM GRIGGS, the forty- 
fourth incumbent of the office of At- 
torney General for the L'nited States was 
born in Newton, Sussex County, New Jer- 
sey, July 10. 1849. He is descended from 
an English family which settled in ]\Iassa- 
chusetts in 1636, whence some of the name 
removed to Hunterdon Count}', New Jer- 
sey, where the grandfather of this sketcti 
and his father, Daniel, were influential men. 
He obtained his early education in the 
Newton Collegiate Institute ; was gradu- 
ated from Lafayette College, Easton, Penn- 
sylvania, in 1868; began his legal studies 
with Robert Hamilton in Newton and fin- 
ished with Socrates Tuttle in Paterson ; was 
admitted to the bar in 1871 ; and, settling 
in Paterson, was received into partnership 
by Mr. Tuttle in 1872. 

About this time he began to attract the 



attention of the political leaders in his city 
and county. Naturally a ready, fluent, and 
well-poised speaker, his prompt acceptance 
of an emergency call to address a political 
gathering in Paterson, urged by Henry L. 
Butler, then chairman of the Republican 
County Committee, was his actual introduc- 
tion to public life. In 1875 he was elected 
to the New Jersey Assembly, his first politi- 
cal office, and he at once took an active part 
in framing the general legislation made 
necessary by the newly-adopted amena- 
ments to the State Constitution, in associa- 
tion with Supreme Court Justice Magie, 
Frederic A. Potts, Leon Abbett, Alden Sco- 
vel, and William .A. Lewis. He was re- 
elected in 1876. and, being nominated for a 
third term against his will, was defeated af- 
ter making a brilliant campaign. 

In 1879-82 he was City Counsel of Pater- 



44 



BIOGRAPHICAL CYCLOPEDIA 



son; in the last named year he was elected 
to the State Senate; three years later he was 
re-elected by a large plurality; and in 1886 
he was chosen President of that body. The 
impeachment trial of State Prison Keepe. 
Laverty occupied a greater part of the ses- 
sion of 1886. He presided over the court 
of impeachment, where his judicial bear- 
ing, learning, and impartial rulings gained 
for him marked commendation. In the 
following year he was chairman of the com- 
mittee on Judiciary. While in the Senate 
he took a leading part in framing the Rail- 
road Tax Act, drafted the law for tlie taxa- 
tion of miscellaneous corporations, aided 
in securing high license legislation, urged 
a more stringent act in the ballot-reform 
movement, and was the Republican leader 
at the joint meeting in the Senate contest in 
1887, which ended in the defeat of Gover- 
nor Abbett. After his retirement from the 
Senate and until his election as Governor, 
he devoted himself wholly to his large law 
business. 

In 1892 President Harrison gave serious 
consideration to Mr. Griggs' record and 
qualifications in connection with the vacancy 
on the bench of the United States Supreme 
Court caused by the death of Associate Jus- 
tice Joseph P. Bradley, of New Jersey. Al- 
though Mr. Griggs had always been an ar- 
dent and unfaltering Republican, he had 
gained such high reputation for fairness 
and honesty that the Democratic newspa- 
pers of the State uniformly expressed grati- 
fication at the probability of his appoint- 
ment. The choice, however, fell elsewhere. 
Mr. Griggs was prominent in Republican 
politics in the stormy scenes preceding the 
legislative session of 1894, and again in 
1895. Governor George T. Werts offered 
him an appointment to the State Supreme 
Court, but he declined this as well as other 
flattering preferments. 

For twenty-five years prior to 1895 the 
office of Governor of New Jersey had been 
held by a Democrat. In that year Mr. 
Griggs was honored with the Republican 
nomination, and in the election, he received 



a plurality of 26,900 votes. His extraor- 
dinary strength in this campaign was at- 
tributed to an emphatic demand of the peo- 
ple all over the State, Democrats and Re 
publicans alike, for a candidate who would 
represent what were called the old-fash- 
ioned ideas of personal integrity and digni- 
ty of character as Governor. His intimate 
knowledge of the affairs of the State and 
his broad acquaintance with its citizens al- 
so specially commended him. He had long 
represented the ideal of an eminent, active 
unswerving Republican, and was recognized 
as a legislator of statesmanlike qualities, 
and a man of sterling character, unimpeach- 
able integrity, and cleanliness of thought 
and deed. Of his record as Governor it 
need only be said that it comported with 
his previous career and that it lulfilled tlit. 
expectations of all who knew him. That a 
knowledge of his course as lawyer, legisla- 
tor, and Governor had extended beyond his 
native state was pleasingly attested on Jan- 
uary 22, 1898, when President McKinley 
nominated him to be Attorney-General of 
the United States. The nomination was 
confirmed on the 25th, Mr. Griggs resigned 
the office of Governor on the 31st, and took 
the oath of his new office on the same day. 
Mr. Griggs assumed the duties of his 
Federal Office at a critical period in the 
history of the country. The eyes and 
hearts of the American people were con- 
centrated on starving, bleeding Cuba. 
Threatening clouds were rapidly rising and 
daily growing more alarming. On April 21 
the storm broke, revealing a state of war 
between the United States and Spain. Dur- 
ing the short-lived struggle, the negotiations 
for peace, and the subsequent operations of 
the American military and civil authorities 
in Cuba, Porto Rico, and the Philippines, 
Mr. Griggs, as the official legal adviser of 
the President and Government, was charged 
with a most weighty and delicate responsi- 
bility. Only a minimum of what he did in 
those trying days has been made public, the 
rest belongs to the secret archives of the 
Government which it would be impolitic to 




(O^ytyu^^v^ (^^^>/-^t^^^^a/^y^ 



BIOGRAPHICAL CYCLOPEDIA 



45 



disclose. Mr. Griggs held this office for a 
little more than three years, resigning on 
March 29, 1901, though urged in high quar- 
ters to remain, feeling that duty to his fam- 
ily demanded his return to private life and 
practice. 

On retiring from the office he was pre- 
sented by the officers and employes of the 
Department with a large solid silver claret 
pitcher of classic shape and unique design. 
In making the presentation, Solicitor-Gen- 
eral Richards paid Mr. Griggs the following 
compliment : 

"During three years memorable in the 
history of our country, as trusted adviser in 
trying times of one of the great Presidents 
of the Republic, and as chief law officer 
of the Government when serious legal ques- 
tions sought solution, you have added to 
your fame as a statesman and your reputa- 
tion as a lawyer. You have served with dis- 
tinction as Attorney-General. We are proud 
to have served under you. We are sorry 
to see you go. The burden you have had 
to bear — the trying work you have had to 
do — has never made you unmindful of your 
subordinates. Your uniform kindness and 
courtesy as our chief has touched our 
hearts. We want you to take away a token 
of this fact." 

In responding, Mr. Griggs thus chival- 



rously acknowledged his indebtedness to the 
loyalty and excellent service of the members 
of his official family : 

"If the Department has, during the time 
tliat I have belonged to it, achieved any- 
thing in the way of public commendation, 
if the demands of the public business have 
been met, if those who came here have been 
treated promptly and courteously and gone 
away satisfied, it has been more due to the 
uniform courtesy, kindness, faithfulness, 
and ability of you gentlemen than to any 
qualities of mine. And I want to say for 
you, each and all, that I never knew in all 
my experience or never learned of a corps 
of assistants who were so absolutely loyal 
and faithful to their chief and to the Gov- 
ernment they served, as are the employes of 
this Department in Washington." 

Mr. Griggs is a close student, a profound 
thinker, and writes in an unusual degree, 
sound, practical judgment, with the acute- 
ness needed to unravel legal subtleties. He 
is a keen lover of all forms of athletics, an 
enthusiastic hunter, an excellent rifle shot, 
a good golf player, and an expert in chess 
and whist. He is a member of the Hamil- 
ton Club of Paterson and of the Union 
League Club of New York City, and Pres- 
ident of the Paterson National Bank and of 
the Paterson Safe Deposit Company. 



GARRET AUGUSTUS HOBART 

PATERSON 



GARRET AUGUSTUS HOBART, 
twenty-fourth Vice-President of the 
United States, was born in Long Branch, 
New Jersey, June 3, 1844. He was a son 
of Addison W. Hobart, who removed from 
New Hampshire to New Jersey and became 
a teacher, and of Sophia Vandeveer, of 
Long Branch, a woman of French and 
Dutch ancestry. He received a common 
school education, prepared for college in 
a classical institute, and was graduated 
from Rutgers College, New Brunswick, 



New Jersey, in 1863. Ambitious to become 
a lawyer, but without the means of study, 
he engaged in teaching in Marlboro till he 
had acquired a small sum of money, when 
he went to Paterson and entered the law 
office of Socrates Tuttle, a close personal 
friend of his father. He there applied him- 
self assiduously to general study and at the 
same time specialized in commercial law. 
In 1866 he was admitted to the bar, and in 
1869 was made a counselor-at-law. During 
his early years in Paterson he devoted him- 



46 



BIOGRAPHICAL CYCLOPEDIA 



self wholly to the practice of his profession. 
His ability and popularity, however, soon 
brought him into political notice, and in 
1 87 1 he made his first political and public 
appearance as City Counsel of Paterson. 

Also at this time he began to take a 
special interest in local and State political 
activities, and did much to secure the elec- 
tion of Mr. Tuttle, his preceptor, to the of- 
fice of mayor. In 1872 he was elected coun- 
sel to the board of freeholders of Passaic 
County, and was also elected to the State 
Assembly, receiving for the latter the 
largest Republican majority the county had 
ever given for that office. He was re-elect- 
ed in 1873; was speaker of the house in 
1874, when only thirty years old ; and de- 
clined a renomination in 1875 because of 
the pressure of his law business. But a 
year later his party again called him into 
the field and sent him to the State Senate, 
where he served two terms, and was Presi- 
dent of that body in the sessions of 1881 
and 1882. During his service in the Legis- 
lature he made hosts of warm friends, and 
as Speaker and President he exhibited re- 
markable tact and ability as a parliamen- 
tarian. 

After leaving the Senate he gave up all 
aspiration for further political honors. He 
had become identified with many and wide- 
ly diverse business interests, which de- 
manded much of his attention, and, with his 
law practice, left him little opportunity for 
other activities. His withdrawal to private 
life was a keen disappointment to the party 
leaders. Any preferment within their 
power could have been his for the asking ; 
but he asked nothing. He received the com- 
jjlimentary nomination for United States 
Senator in 1884, when the Democratic ma- 
jority elected John R. McPherson ; he de- 
clined a congressional nomination five 
times; and twice refused assent to the 
wishes of his party to place him in nomina- 
tion for governor. Yet, notwithstanding the 
great pressure of his private responsibili- 
ties, he remained active in the councils of 
his party. He was chairman of the Repub- 



lican State Committee in 1880-90 ; was a 
delegate to the National Conventions of 
1876, 1880, 1884, 1888, 1892 and 1896; and 
became a member and vice-chairman of the 
National Executive Committee in 1884. 

In 1895 ^^- Hobart was drawn, most 
willingly be it said, from his retirement to 
the activities of a struggle for the office of 
Governor. The Democratic party had held 
uninterrupted possession of that office for 
twenly-five years, and considered its pos- 
session impregnable. Mr. Hobart believed 
that the Democracy could be attacked suc- 
cessfully with a candidate of unusually 
strong personality, and suggested his friend 
and neighbor, John W. Griggs, as the most 
available person. His choice met with gen- 
eral approval throughout the State. Mr. 
Griggs received the nomination. Mr. Ho- 
bart undertook the personal management of 
the campaign, and diffused his contagious 
enthusiasm to every nook and corner of the 
State. The struggle was one of the most 
brilliant, exciting and memorable contests 
in the political history of New Jersey. Mr. 
Griggs won by a plurality of 26,900 votes, 
an astonishing triumph for all concerned. 

The victory achieved, his political pre- 
science vindicated, Mr. Hobart turned again 
to his manifold business concerns. But the 
result of this campaign had an immediate 
and powerful iniluence on the national pol- 
icy of the party. New Jersey, restored to 
the group of Republican States, received a 
heartier consideration from the party lead- 
ers than she had had for an entire genera- 
tion, and the man who had been most influ- 
ential in bringing about the remarkable 
change became "a factor to be reckoned 
with." Mr. Hobart's friends within and 
without the State realized the opportunity 
and pressed it in all quarters. 

When the National Republican Conven- 
tion of 1896 convened it seemed a foregone 
conclusion that its candidates would be Mc- 
Kinley and Hobart. The result justified 
the forecast, and this ticket carried the elec- 
tion. Mr. Hobart was inaugurated on 
March 4, 1897, and from that time till the 



BIOGRAPHICAL CYCLOPEDIA 



47 



illness that caused his death, at his home in 
Paterson, November 21, 1899, he was prob- 
ably a more intimate friend and trusted 
counselor of the President than any of his 
predecessors had been to their chief. As 
President of the Senate he kept on terms of 
intimacy and cordiality with every member, 
and his conduct of business from the chair 
was conspicuous at all times both for its 
orderliness and impartiality. He was highly 
praised for his decisions on mooted ques- 
tions, some of which involved delicate po- 
litical and personal points sufficient to tax 
abilities of the highest order. 

How ably he discharged the duties of his 
high office may be judged from the testi- 
mony of the men with whom he had been 
closely associated in public life. The fol- 
lowing are typical of a great number of 
tributes : 

"In him the nation has lost one of its 
most illustrious citizens and one of its most 
faithful servants. His participation in the 
business life and the law-making body of 
his native State was marked by unswerv- 
ing fidelity and by a high order of talents 
and attainments ; and his too brief career 
as Vice-President of the United States and 
President of the Senate exhibited the lofti- 
est qualities of upright and sagacious states- 
manship.. In the world of affairs he had 
few equals among his contemporaries. His 
private character was gentle and noble. He 
will long be mourned by his friends as a 
man of singular purity and attractiveness, 
whose sweetness of disposition won all 
hearts, while his elevated purposes, his un- 
bending integrity, and whole-hearted devo- 
tion to the public good deserved and ac- 
quired universal respect and esteem." — 
President McKinley in announcing his 
death. 

"Mr. Hobart was a noble, generous 
hearted man — one of the most lovable I have 
ever known. Of him in his official capaci- 
ty it may be said that he was a typical pre- 
siding officer, and deservedly popular and 
most highly esteemed by all Senators, with- 
out regard to party affiliations." — Senator 
Joseph B. Foraker. 

"No one knew better than he at all times 



the state of the business of the Senate. He 
was quick and just in decision, and abso- 
lutely free from partiality. No provocation 
ever disturbed his urbanity." — Senator 
Charles W. Fairbanks, later \'ice-President. 

"I never knew a man who had such a 
strong faculty for endearing himself to 
those with whom he came into contact." — 
Senator William A. Harris. 

"Mr. Hobart was a remarkable man. He 
was uniformly successful as a lawyer and 
as Vice-President. He was successful be- 
cause he was a man not only of ability, but 
of sterling loyalty and honesty." — Former 
Vice-President Levi P. Morton. 

"As his associate and friend I can say 
he had the clearest intellect, the largest bus- 
iness capacity, the keenest intuition, of any 
man I ever knew ; but more remarkable 
than these qualities were his traits of mod- 
esty, amounting almost to diffidence, of 
large-handed generosity unostentatiously 
bestowed, of unselfish public spirit in all af- 
fairs of town, or State, or country, and, 
finest of all, a great heart that never beat 
except with love and loyalty and sympathy 
for all the world." — Attorney-General John 
W. Griggs, his neighbor and most intimate 
friend. 

As before mentioned, Mr. Hobart had 
wide business interests. He was the presi- 
dent, general manager, or a director in 
some sixty corporations, to many of which 
he had also acted as general counsel. Per- 
sonally he was one of the most approach- 
able of men. He never denied himself to 
visitors, no matter on what errand they 
came. There was no "private" room in his 
suite of offices in Paterson. He was most 
scrupulous in attending to the requests for 
information and assistance that constantly 
came to him, and he made it a rule both in 
his political and business life to at least ac- 
knowledge the receipt of every letter. 

Mr. Hobart married Jennie Tuttle, 
daughter of his preceptor in law, July 21, 
1869. Two children were born of this 
union, Garret A. Hobart, Jr., who with his 
mother survived, and Fanny Hobart, who 
died in Italy in 1895. The family occupied 
and still retain a handsome home "Carroll 



48 



BIOGRAPHICAL CYCLOPEDIA 



Hall" in Paterson, and a summer place in 
Long Branch, near which Mr. Hobart was 
born. On opening Mr. Hobart's will it was 



found that he had bequeathed $5,000 each 
to the five principal charitable institutions 
of Paterson. 



JONATHAN DIXON 

JERSEY CITY 



JONATHAN DIXON, who, in the 
course of thirty-one years' service as a 
justice of the supreme court of New Jer- 
sey, attained wide and enviable distinction 
as a jurist of exceptional capacity and high 
honor, was a native of Liverpool, England, 
in which city he was born July 6, 1839. 
He was the son of Jonathan and Ann 
(Morrison) Dixon. The father came to 
this country in 1848, and was followed by 
his family two years later, settling in New 
Brunswick, New Jersey. The family was of 
ancient English lineage and honorable tradi- 
tions, its descendants figuring conspicuous- 
ly in various walks of life, both in this 
country and abroad. 

Jonathan Dixon received his education 
in Rutgers College, New Brunswick, New 
Jersey, entering that institution as a student 
in 1855 and being graduated therefrom in 
1859. The honorary degree of doctor of 
laws was conferred on him in 1878, by Rut- 
gers College, and he was made a trustee of 
that college in 1886, serving as such for 
many years. During his collegiate career 
he was an inmate of the home of Cornelius 
L. Hardenburg, a well-known lawyer, who, 
having been afflicted by blindness, assumed 
the education of the lad, who in the mean- 
time acted as his benefactor's amanuensis 
and personal attendant. 

On the completion of his collegiate 
course, the young man took up the study 
of law, for which he had a natural taste 
and marked aptitude, serving as a student- 
at-law in various offices, and at the same 
time finding a means of livelihood as a 
school teacher. Admitted as an attorney 
in 1862, he became a counsellor-at-law 



three years later. Immediately after his 
admission as an attorney, he removed to 
Jersey City, New Jersey, where he entered 
the law office of E. E. Wakeman, forming 
a co-jiartnership with that gentleman in the 
spring of 1864. This professional relation- 
ship continued for a year, at the end of 
which time Mr. Dixon established a prac- 
tice of his own. For five years he followed 
his profession alone, acquiring a high and 
enviable reputation as a learned and care- 
ful practitioner in whose hands the inter- 
ests of clients were well guarded and in- 
telligently represented. 

He then formed a partnership with Gil- 
bert Collins, who afterward became a jus- 
tice of the supreme court of New Jersey, 
an honor that fell to Mr. Dixon in 1875, 
when he was oppointed to that judicial po- 
sition by Governor Beadle. He acquitted 
himself of his new responsibilities with a 
dignity and strength that left nothing to be 
desired, and in 1882, when his term ex- 
pired, he was reappointed by Governor 
Ludlow. Again, in 1889, he was named 
by Governor Green for the place that he 
so well and honorably filled, and was sub- 
sequently reappointed by Governors Griggs 
and Murphy in 1896 and 1903 respectively, 
being still on the bench when he died, his 
term not expiring until 1910. At the time 
of his death he filled the circuit comprising 
Hudson county. As a jurist he possessed 
those qualities of mind and that keen intel- 
ligence which are essential to the duties of 
the position ; fair and impartial in his de- 
cisions, learned in his legal interpretations, 
and upright as a man, he reflected honor 




Jln^i^yJ^--' ^-r^- 



BIOGRAPHICAL CYCLOPEDIA 



49 



upon the bencli that he adorned. He was 
a Repubhcan in his political convictions, 
and in 1883 was his party's nominee for 
governor of the State, being defeated by 
Leon Abbet. 

Justice Dixon married Elizabeth M. 
Price, daughter of Henry M. Price, by 
whom he had one son, Warren Dixon, who 
inherited his father's legal talents to a 
marked degree and has attained prominence 
in the same profession, winning recogni- 



tion and prestige as one of the leading 
members of the Hudson County bar. He 
was survived also by his widow and eight 
daughters, Mary M., the wife of Millard 
F. Ross, Jessie L., the wife of Francis J. 
McCoy; Elsie, the wife of Lewis E. Carr, 
Jr.; Bertha, the wife of James Crowell ; 
Laura, Helen, and Velma Dixon, and Eliz- 
abeth, the wife of Robert C. Post, at whose 
home in Englewood, N. J., he died on the 
2ist day of May, 1906. 



CORTLANDT PARKER 

NEWARK 



CORTLANDT PARKER, sixth child 
of James and Penelope (Butler) Park- 
er, was born in the old mansion of the 
Parker family in Perth Amboy, June 27, 
1818. He received his early education in 
Perth Amboy, with private instruction in 
the elements of Latin and Greek, and in 
1832 entered Rutgers College, where he 
was graduated, with the first honors and as 
valedictorian of his class, in 1836, at the 
age of eighteen. Among his classmates were 
Joseph P. Bradley, afterward Justice of the 
United States Supreme Court; Frederick 
T. Frelinghuysen, who became Attorney- 
General of New Jersey, United States Sen- 
ator, and Secretary of State under Presi- 
dent Arthur ; William A. Newell, elected 
governor of New Jersey and later appoint- 
ed governor of Washington Territory ; 
Henry Waldron, for many years a member 
of Congress from Michigan ; James C. Van 
Dyke, who served as United States Dis- 
trict Attorney for Pennsylvania ; George 
W. Coakley, eminent as professor of mathe- 
matics in New York University, and others 
who in after life enjoyed prominence in 
professional, ministerial, and business pur- 
suits. 

Soon after leaving college young Parker 
entered the office of the Honorable Theo- 
dore Frelinghuysen of Newark as a law 



student, and upon Mr. Frelinghuysen's re- 
tirement from practice to become Chan- 
cellor of the New York University he con- 
tinued his professional studies under Amzi 
Armstrong. He was admitted to the bar 
as an attorney in September, 1839, and as a 
counsellor three years later, and began his 
legal career in Newark, in association with 
two of his classmates, Joseph P. Bradley 
and Frederick T. Frelinghuysen. From 
that time throughout his life he continued 
in Newark, without any interruption, as a 
practicing lawyer. At the time of his death 
he was the oldest as well as the most dis- 
tinguished active representative of the bar 
of New Jersey; two of his sons, the Honor- 
able Richard Wayne Parker and Cortlandt 
Parker, Jr., being connected with him in 
professional business. 

The son of one of the most notable lead- 
ers of political opinion in the state of New 
Jersey during the first half of the nine- 
teenth century, and thrown from youth into 
association with many of the foremost 
characters of the day, as well as, in friend- 
ly rivalry, with other young men of as- 
piration and ability, he entered upon ac- 
tive life with high personal ideas. The 
earnest spirit which thus marked the be- 
ginning of his career was conspicuous 
throughout its entire progress, and it is 



50 



BIOGRAPHICAL CYCLOPEDIA 



in the character of the high-minded, unsel- 
fish citizen, of pre-eminent attainments, in- 
fluence, and unselfishness that Mr. Parker 
is chiefly to be estimated. 

In his political affiliations, both from the 
early influences by which he was sur- 
rounded and from his own studies and re- 
flections upon the principles of govern- 
ment, he followed the course pursued by 
his father. The latter had in youth 
espoused the doctrines of Hamilton and 
the other great federalist fathers of the con- 
stitution, expressed at that early day in the 
tenets of the Federalist party and later 
maintained by the Whigs, and based upon 
the fundamental ideas of the supremacy of 
the national government and inviolability 
of the national union, encouragement to 
manufactures, a protective tariff, and the 
subordination of local or schismatic prefer- 
ences or tendencies in the interest of a solid 
union and a broad development. 

The first presidential vote of Cortlandt 
Parker was cast in the memorable cam- 
paign of 1840, when General William H. 
Harrison, the candidate of the Whig party, 
was elected; and in this contest he took 
part with enthusiasm, delivering political 
speeches and writing communications to the 
press upon the issues involved. In the next 
campaign (1844), when Henry Clay and 
Theodore Frelinghuysen were the Whig 
nominees for President and Vice-President, 
he was also very active. He was the au- 
thor of the campaign "Life of Frelinghuy- 
sen," which still remains the best biographi- 
cal character sketch of that statesman. 
The commanding question at that time was 
concerning the proposed admission of 
Texas as a state, and the consequent en- 
largement of the slave-holding area. With 
a deep conviction of the error and danger 
of such a course, and a clear foresight of 
the future, he opposed it in speeches and 
articles. 

Clay and Frelinghuysen were, however, 
defeated. Texas was admitted, and all the 
national perils which conservative thinkers 
had apprehended came in steady and ter- 



rible development. The slave power, su- 
preme and despotic, increased its exactions, 
repealed the Missouri Compromise, passed 
the Fugitive Slave Law, and ended by 
denying the right of freedom to Kansas. 
The Wihg party, weak, disrupted, and no 
longer existing for any definite policy, met 
death in the election of 1852. 

In all this succession of events Mr. 
Parker was an advocate of the programme 
which presently became the basis of the 
new Republican party, and he was one of 
the founders of that organization in New 
Jersey. He was chairman of the ratifica- 
tion meeting held in Newark upon the 
nomination of Abraham Lincoln in i860, 
and from that day until the surrender of 
Lee at Appomattox he was one of the 
most pronounced and steadfast supporters 
of the whole policy of preservation of the 
Union and suppression of the rebellion. 
After the Emancipation Proclamation he 
took the advanced ground that the only 
logical end of that measure was the con- 
cession of the ballot to the freedom, as 
otherwise State law in the south would 
inaugurate a contract system which within 
a few years would lead to the practical re- 
establishment in slavery. He presided at 
the State convention which first proposed 
that doctrine in New Jersey, delivering an 
address that was circulated as a campaign 
document in the ensuing election. Upon 
the original submission to the New Jersey 
legislature of the proposed fourteenth 
amendment to the United States constitu- 
tion, it was voted down by the democrats 
in that body, an action which, in the opin- 
ion of the leaders on both sides, settled the 
matter so far as New Jersey was concerned. 
But Mr. Parker took a different view of 
the legal aspects of the subject, maintain- 
ing that the amendment might be submitted 
again and again until adopted. This legal 
view of the question carried such weight 
that Mr. Parker's party confidently entered 
upon the next electoral contest on the issue 
thus defined, secured the necessary major- 



/*8|S» 





'€&ZeM'1^-^^<^ 




BIOGRAPHICAL CYCLOPEDIA 



51 



ity in the legislature, and duly ratified the 
amendment. 

In this subsequent career, throughout all 
the changing conditions of political discus- 
sion and public events, Mr. Parker main- 
tained the same active and patriotic inter- 
est, frequently addressing his fellow-citi- 
zens on questions of the day, exercising a 
valuable influence by his counsels when 
sought by those in responsible position, and 
contributing to the press many papers dis- 
tinguished for dignity and solidity of treat- 
ment and argument. 

As a man continuously and intimately 
identified for sixty-five years with the poli- 
tics and policy-considered in their more 
elevated aspects of his state and the nation, 
and sustaining a reputation of the first or- 
der for ability, accomplishments, and char- 
acter, Mr. Parker occupied a unique per- 
sonal position, probably seldom paralleled 
in the history of the country. With the 
single exception of a local office in his 
county, which, moreover, was strictly in 
the line of his profession as a lawyer, he 
was never a political officeholder ; but on 
the other hand he uniformly declined re- 
peated tenders of high and honorable sta- 
tions, both State and National. In 1857 
he was appointed by Governor Newell 
Prosecutor of the Pleas of Essex County, 
and for a period of ten years continued to 
serve in that capacity. In the same year 
as that of his appointment as prosecutor his 
name was brought before the State Legis- 
lature for the position of Chancellor ; later 
a Republican convention nominated him 
for Congress after he had announced that 
even if nominated he would decline ; Presi- 
dent Grant requested him to accept a 
judgeship in the court for settling the 
Alabama claims ; President Hayes offered 
him the ministry to Russia ; President 
Arthur tendered him that to Vienne, 
but all these dignities were declined. 
In his earlier career he was on two 
occasions proposed for Attorney-Gen- 
eral of New Jersey, when that honor was 
one not uninviting from his professional 



point of view, but owing probably as much 
to his reputation for independence of politi- 
cal influences and considerations as to any 
other circumstances he was not appointed. 
He was many times voted for in the legis- 
lature as a candidate for the United States 
Senate. 

Aside from the strict sphere of politics, 
he served in several honorary positions — 
notably as a commissioner to settle the dis- 
puted boundary lines between New Jersey 
and Delaware, and as a reviser of the laws 
of New Jersey, in conjunction with Chief- 
Justice Beasley and Justice Depue. In the 
disputed presidential election of 1876 he 
was sent by President Grant to witness the 
counting of the ballots in Louisiana, and 
was complimented for his fairness by op- 
ponents. 

"It was largely due to Parker's opinion, 
pitted against that of other eminent law- 
yers, that the state riparian rights were 
safeguarded and dedicated to the school 
fund at the time railroad interests were 
seeking to gobble the harbor frontage with- 
out payment. He was a leading author of 
the general railroad law. He was responsi- 
ble for bringing into the supreme court the 
question of the constitutionality of elect- 
ing assemblymen by districts, in which the 
court sustained his view, stopped gerry- 
mandering, and reinstated the system of 
electing by counties. He was senior coun- 
sel and manager of the cause of the repub- 
lican senators who were upheld by the su- 
preme court in the famous deadlock case, 
resulting from the 'rump senate' fight in 
1894." 

As an orator Mr. Parker enjoyed a repu- 
tation for force, scholarship, and the par- 
ticular type of eloquence appealing to the 
mtelligence of men which well accords with 
the dignity and strength manifested in his 
public career, his writings, and his well- 
known individual characteristics. In his 
personality he is remarkable for a physical 
constitution of great vitality, nurtured 
throughout life by a vigorous but orderly 
regimen; possessed of a commanding fig- 



52 



BIOGRAPHICAL CYCLOPEDIA 



ure, and even to the end of his Hfe as erect 
as in youth ; with a distinction of manners 
and address and a nature of warm sensi- 
bilities and strong attachments and sym- 
pathies. 

Mr. Parker's pubHshed writings on 
topics of current or general interest in- 
clude the following, among many other pa- 
pers and addresses : "The Moral Guilt of 
the Rebellion," "Philip Kearny, Soldier 
and Patriot," "Our Triumphs and Our 
Duties," "New Jersey; Her Present and 
Future," "Abraham Lincoln," "The Open 
Bible or Tolerant Christianity," "Alex- 
ander Hamilton and William Paterson," 
"The Three Successful Generals of the 
Army of the Potomac: McClellan, Mead 
and Grant," "Justice Joseph P. Bradley," 
and Sir Matthew Hale: The Lawyer's 
Best Exemplar." 

He held at one time the honorable po- 
sition of President of the American Bar 
Association. Like his father and grand- 
father he was actively indentified with the 
Protestant Episcopal Qiurch and was a lay 



delegate to many diocesan conventions, 
which, in their deliberations, were largely 
guided by his parliamentary knowledge. He 
received the degree of LL. D. from Rut- 
gers College and Princeton University, 
both in the same year. 

In December, 1905, a complimentary 
banquet and reception was tendered to him 
at the Waldorf-Astoria Hotel in New 
York City, by the bench and bar of New 
Jersey, in testimony of the honor and af- 
fection in which he was held as the oldest, 
most distinguished, and most esteemed 
member of the legal profession in his 
State ; addresses being delivered by emin- 
ent judges, lawyers, and public men of 
New Jersey and other States. LTpon this 
occasion a testimonial, signed by many 
former students in his law office, was pre- 
sented to him. He lived in Newark, with a 
summer residence in Perth Amboy, his boy- 
hood home. He married, September 15, 
1857, Eliabeth Wolcott Stites, daughter of 
Richard Wayne and Elizabeth (Cooke) 
Stites of Morristown, New Jersey. 



HENRY WILLIAM EGNER 

NEWARK 



HENRY WILLIAM EGNER, whose 
public career has been one of honor 
and distinction, his official acts serving well 
the best interests of his own city of Orange 
and of Essex County generally, stands as 
a fine type of that high class of American 
citizenship which we owe to German origin. 
Mr. Egncr was born May 13, 1837, in 
Merchingen, Baden, Germany. He is the 
son of Frederick John Egner and Susan 
Siller, of that place. His father was a man 
of influence there, who from time to time 
held various offices in the municipal gov- 
ernment of the town. The family is an 
old and respected one in Germany, and the 
younger Egner had all the advantages of 
an excellent education, pursuing his studies 



in the Merchingen schools and under pri- 
vate tutors. 

It was in 1852, when he was fifteen years 
of age. that he came to the L^nited States 
with his father, settling in Orange, New 
Jersey, where he learned the trade of 
watchmaker and jeweler with his brother, 
Louis, who was then established in that 
line of business in that place. He re- 
mained in the jewelry trade until 1879. In 
1885 he entered the leather business as 
junior partner in the firm of Meis & Egner, 
remaining identified with that concern un- 
til 1895. In 1898 he became president of 
the Newark Cornice and Skylight Works, 
with which important and growing enter- 
prise he still continues in that capacity. 




^S^t4^^/K Ccf'f^t^^ 



BIOGRAPHICAL CYCLOPEDIA 



53 



Mr. Egner has shown exceptionable busi- 
ness ability and to his wise direction is di- 
rectly due much of the success and repute 
that the concern has achieved in its own 
special field of effort. He has always taken 
a keen personal interest in its operations, 
guiding its destinies with a shrewd, unerr- 
ing hand ; and the results are to be seen in 
the fruits attained. 

In addition to his connection with the 
Newark Cornice and Skylight Works, Mr. 
Egner has various other business interests 
of an important character. He is president 
of the Essex Realty and Investment Com- 
pany, to which he has devoted himself with 
an energy that has been fruitful in advanc- 
ing the development of the enterprise. He 
is also a director in several building and 
loan associations, a form of effort to which 
he has given considerable attention and 
done much to promote. For many years 
he was a director of the Orange Savings 
Bank, serving as a member of the auditing 
committee of that institution. 

Mr. Egner is a Democrat in his political 
views and afifiliations, but he has never per- 
mitted partisanship to blind his eyes to 
public duty and his official acts in every in- 
stance have been of a type to recommend 
him to the favor and endorsement of the 
whole people, irrespective of mere party 
considerations. He served with credit as 
an alderman of the city of Orange from 
1867 to 1873, during which time he was one 
of a special committee which revised the 
charter of Orange. This charter is still in 
force, and many of its wisest provisions 
were due to Mr. Egner's foresight and 
judgment. 

He was elected mayor of Orange in 1875 
and served for three successive terms. 
That his administration was able and sat- 
isfactory is best shown by the fact that af- 
ter the expiration of his third term, the 
citizens of Orange, without distinction of 
party, nominated him for a fourth term, 
which honor, however, he declined to ac- 
cept. Police and fire departments were or- 
ganized, sidewalks laid, and a system of 



macadam street improvements introduced 
in Orange through his efforts, and in many 
ways he demonstrated his public spirit as a 
citizen and his regard for the welfare of 
the community as an office-holder. While 
mayor he was watchful of the public inter- 
ests and vetoed manv measures that he 
deemed detrimental to the city ; and al- 
though the common council was of a dif- 
ferrent political faith not a single measure 
was repassed over his veto. He subse- 
quently served as register of deeds of Es- 
sex County, 1 879- 1 884. In the campaign 
which elected him, his personal popularity 
was shown by his running 1,800 votes 
ahead of his ticket. Again he proved an in- 
telligent, capable official and he retired from 
the office with the good feeling of the law- 
yers and business men of his county. 

In 1893 Mr. Egner was appointed collec- 
tor of customs of the port of Newark by 
President Cleveland, serving in that capac- 
ity until 1897. During his term the new 
Federal Building was erected in Newark 
under his supervision as disbursing agent 
and through his efforts the usefulness of 
the port 'was greatly enlarged, the annual 
receipts of the custom house at Newark 
being increased from $5,000 to $250,000, 
which was in itself a notable achievement. 

Mr. Egner is a Lutheran in his religious 
faith and is a regular attendant at St. 
John's Lutheran Church of Newark. In- 
terested in efforts of a benevolent na- 
ture, he is a member of the German Hos- 
pital of Newark and president of the board 
of directors of the Krueger Greisenheim of 
Newark. He belongs to many fraternal 
and social organizations. He was presi- 
dent of the Newark Shooting Society and 
a member and vice-president of the Ein- 
tracht Singing Society, of the same city. 
He was prominent and influential in the 
Fraternal Legion of America, being senior 
vice commander of the Supreme Camp and 
Commander of Schiller Camp of that order. 

Mr. Egner now resides in Newark and 
takes great delight in his home and family. 
He married in New York City, June 5, 



54 



BIOGRAPHICAL CYCLOPEDIA 



1866, Emily S. Nasher, daughter of Martin 
and Anna Maria (Worth) Nasher. Of this 
union were born nine children, of whom 
six survive, as follows: 

Emily L. Egner, married Ramon F. 
Ozias, well known as a successful metal- 
lurgist, and they have five children, Ramon 
E. Jr., Arthur H., Harold E., E. 
Lucile and James E. Ozias ; Lena E. 
Egner, unmarried, a graduate of the 
Newark High School and the New- 
ark Normal School ; Henry W. Egner, 
Jr., unmarried, a lawyer by profession, 
graduated from the Newark High School 
and in 1895 from Columbia University with 



the degree of bachelor of arts, that of 
bachelor of laws being conferred upon him 
by the same institution in 1898; A. Wil- 
berforce Egner, unmarried, a lawyer and 
a graduate of the New York University 
Law School ; Arthur F. Egner, unmarried, 
a lawyer, graduated from the Newark High 
School and afterward, in 1903, from Co- 
lumbia University, with the degree of 
bachelor of arts, that of master of arts being 
conferred upon him by that institution of 
learning in 1905, in which year he was 
made a bachelor of laws by the New York- 
Law School; Florence M. Egner, unmar- 
ried. 



RICHARD WAYNE PARKER 

NEWARK 



RICHARD WAYNE PARKER was 
born in Morristown, New Jersey, .Au- 
gust 6, 1848, and is a lawyer by profession. 
He was graduated from Princeton College 
in 1867, studied law in the Columbia Law 
School, New York, and was admitted to the 
bar in 1870. He then became the law part- 
ner of his father, the late Cortlandt Park- 
er, and the partnership continued until the 
death of the latter. He was a member of 



Assembly from Essex County in 1885 and 
1886, and he took a prominent part in legis- 
lation. In 1892 he was defeated for Con- 
gress by the late Thomas Dunn English. He 
was a member of the Fifty-fourth, Fifty- 
fifth, Fifty-sixth Congresses, and was elect- 
ed to the Sixty-first Congress by a plurality 
of 6,759 over Townsend, Democrat, being 
his eighth consecutive term. 



GUY EDWARDS 

NUTLEY 



GUY EDWARDS, who has acquired 
enviable prominence as a member of 
the New Jersey and New York bars, was 
born in Chester, Illinois, March 19, 1861. 
He is the son of John Lang Edwards and 
Marie Josephine Widen, and traces his de- 
scent from old American ancestral stock. 
He was educated in Monmouth College, in 
Illinois, from which institution he was 
graduated in the class of 1882. Leaving his 



native state the following year, he came to 
New York City, where he attended the Co- 
lumbia Law School, locating in New Jersey 
in 1885. He then studied law in Jersey 
City with Washington B. Williams and was 
admitted to the bar of that State as an at- 
torney at the February term, 1887, and as a 
counselor in February, 1890. He was also 
admitted to the New York bar in 
1895. 



BIOGRAPHICAL CYCLOPEDIA 



55 



As a lawyer, liis exceptional ability 
speedily served to attract support and, hav- 
ing established himself in the practice of 
his profession in Newark, New Jersey, he 
succeeded in acquiring a large and influen- 
tial clientile. He is distinguished by the 
care with which he guards his clients' best 
interests and he has been successfully iden- 
tified with some litigation of a highly im- 
portant nature, so acquitting himself as to 
add materially to his professional repute 
and standing. He is a Republican in his 
political convictions and he has taken an 
active part in the campaigns of his party. 
He is a member of the Republican County 
Committee of Essex County and vice-pres- 
ident of the Republican Central Committee 
of Nutley. He served for some time as 



counsel for the town of Nutley, in which 
capacity he performed his official duty with 
an ability that has drawn favorable notice 
to himself. He is a member of the Bar 
Association of New York, the Lawyers' 
Club of Essex County, the Nutley Field 
Club, and Crescent Lodge, No. 402, Free 
and Accepted Masons, of New York. 

Mr. Edwards married in New York, De- 
cember 27, 1898, May Stuart Scholefield, 
daughter of the late Major Charles M. 
Scholefield, of Utica, New York. By his 
first wife, who was the daughter of W. B. 
Williams, he has one son, Guy V. Edwards. 
He is a member of Grace Protestant Epis- 
copal Church, of Nutley, and is regarded 
in that place as a leading and representa- 
tive citizen. 



ALBERT CLBARMAN PEDRICK 

NEWARK 



ALBERT CLEARMAN PEDRICK, 
who has won distinction at the New Jer- 
sey bar as one of its ablest representatives, 
skilled in corporation law and general prac- 
tice, was born at Newark, New Jersey, Au- 
gust 21, 1874. He is a son of Robert A. 
and Henrietta Pedrick, and traces his de- 
scent from old and honored lineage, his 
forebears having figured conspicuously in 
the afifairs of their neighborhood and per- 
iod. Receiving his earlier education in the 
Washington Street public school, in his na- 
tive city, he afterward attended the New- 
ark High School, and then took a course at 
the New York University Law School being 
graduated from that instituion in 1895, with 
the degree of bachelor of laws. 

He read law in Newark in the office of 
Cortlandt and Wayne Parker, subsequently 
becoming the managing clerk for the firm of 
Depue & Parker, with whom he remained in 
that capacity until his admission to the bar 
of New Jersey as an attorney-at-law, in No- 
vember, 1897. He was admitted as a coun- 



selor in November, 1900, and as attorney 
and counselor in the United States Circuit 
and District Courts in 1906. 

He has been very successful in his prac- 
tice and has acquired an extended and in 
fluential clientile, having been identified 
with considerable litigation of an important 
nature, in which he has acquitted himself 
with an ability that has gained him enviable 
prestige. Deeply versed in the law, espec- 
ially in that appertaining to corjjorations, in 
that branch of his profession he may well 
be classed as an expert whose opinions can 
be safely accepted as authoritative. He was 
counsel for the Coast Gas Company, of Bel- 
mar, New Jersey, at the time of its organ- 
ization and he has organized the Little Falls 
Water Company, of Little Falls, New Jer- 
sey, the Patchogue Gas Comj)any, of Patch- 
ogue, Long Island, the Sea Cliflf and Glen 
Cove Gas Company, of Glen Cove, Long 
Island, and various other public service cor- 
porations, in which connection his thorough 
knowledge of corporation law has proved of 



56 



BIOGRAPHICAL CYCLOPEDIA 



the fullest value to the interests con- 
cerned. 

Mr. Pedrick has always been an active 
Republican politically. Although taking a 
keen interest in the campaigns of his party, 
he has never held public office, preferring to 
concentrate all his time and energies upon 
his professional work. He is a member of 
the Lawyers' Club of Essex County, with 
which he has been identified ever since its 
organization. In his religious faith he is a 
Methodist and holds membership in St. 



Paul's Methodist Episcopal Church, of 
Newark, being a leading and influential 
member of that congregation and president 
of its board of stewards. Personally, he is 
a gentleman of high culture and broad at- 
tainments, possessing strong mentality and 
intellectual gifts of an exceptional order. 
Wherever known he is popular and his so- 
cial standing, like his professional repute, is 
of the best. He married October 26, 1908, 
in Newark, Emma linger Hagney, daughter 
of Lewis G. and Pauline Hagney. 



ULRICH EBERHARDT 

NEWARK 



ULRICH EBERHARDT, manufac- 
turer, and, at the time of his death, 
president of Gould and Eberhardt, Incor- 
porated, was born in the village of Mettlen, 
canton of Turgau, Switzerland, December 
4, 1841. His boyhood was passed in his 
native village, where he attended the public 
school. His parents were not possessed of 
wealth, but his father was of noble ancestry 
and was a relative of Count Ulrich Eber- 
hardt, of Wurtemburg, Germany. In the 
early fifties, his father, believing that the 
new world oflfered greater opportunities for 
advancement to himself and his children, 
decided to emigrate to America. The jour- 
ney from their home in Switzerland to 
Havre was made by wagon and was tedious 
and exhausting. At Havre they embarked 
on a sailing vessel and the time of forty 
days occupied by the trip from that port 
to New York was not unusual in those days 
of slow sailing packets. 

Arriving in the LTnited States, the family 
located in Newark, where the subject of 
this sketch began to earn his livelihood by 
stripping tobacco. Even at the outset of 
his career he displayed those qualities of 
ambitious perseverance that won for him 
the successes of his later years. Although 
forced to add to the income of the family 



by daily employment, which precluded the 
possibility of attending school during the 
day, he determined to supplement the edu- 
cation he had obtained in his native land. 
To this end he attended the Newark even- 
ing schools and rapidly acquired a knowl- 
edge of the English language and its litera- 
ture. 

Before reaching his majority, his natural 
aptitude for mechanics and his abilities in 
that branch of science became decidedly 
marked. Determined to devote his life to 
mechanical pursuits, he obtained employ- 
ment operating an engine in the Ward Rule 
Works, in Newark, but being desirous of 
laying the foundation for a thorough 
knowledge of the science of mechanics, he 
apprenticed himself to Ezra Gould, who 
was then running a small machine shop in 
Newark. In this connection he at once de- 
veloped a high order of ability that could 
really be called genius, and applied him- 
self with such industry and enthusiasm that 
his worth was soon recognized by his em- 
ployer, who, before his term of apprentice- 
ship had expired, made him foreman of the 
shop, a position which he held while still 
an apprentice, but receiving therefore only 
an apprentice's wage of three dollars and 
fifty cents per week. 



BIOGRAPHICAL CYCLOPEDIA 



57 



He entered upon the duties of his posi- 
tion with a determination to guard and 
shield the interests of his employer and 
throughout his career as an em[)loyee he 
never deviated from that principle. His 
qualities of leadership and organization 
were invaluable to the enterprise and short- 
ly after reaching his majority he was re- 
warded by admission into partnership with 
Mr. Gould. In this connection he became 
inspired with more confidence in his ability 
and inaugurated new and progressive meth- 
ods which brought increased prosperity to 
the firm, whose reputation as the most com- 
petent designers and manufacturers of high 
class machine tools rapidly spread through- 
out the United States, and ultimately be- 
came world-wide. 

In 1890 Mr. Gould retired from the firm 
and Mr. Eberhardt acquired complete con- 
trol of the business, which was continued 
under the firm name of Gould and Eber- 
hardt, and was later incorporated under 
the name of Gould and Eberhardt, Incor- 
porated. Mr. Eberhardt was president of 
this corporation and was its controlling 
spirit until the time of his death. 

At the time when Mr. Eberhardt be- 
came the sole owner of the business the 
firm had already won renown as builders of 
high class machine tools. LTnder his di- 
rection, special attention was paid to auto- 
matic gear-cutting machinery, shapers, and 
upright drill presses, and in these lines 
great progress was made. He invented 
many essential features of construction, 
which won distinction for the machines. 
When the first demand for American tools 
came from Europe, the Eberhardt machines 
were received with marked favor abroad 
and a very large export business was ac- 
quired by the firm. The large increase in 
the output of the business necessitated in- 
creased facilities for manufacturing so that 
it was but a short time before the plant of 
the firm was too small for its business. Al- 
though additions had been made from time 
to time, Mr. Eberhardt again displayed his 
genuis by reconstructing the entire build- 



ing, making of it a modern steel form struc- 
ture, this undertaking being accomplished 
without interfering in any way with the 
operation of the machine shop during this 
period. 

Mr. Eberhardt took imusual interest in 
the men whom he employed. He placed 
many young men in positions wherein they 
developed careers of usefulness; some of 
them occupy important positions in the 
business which he founded, while others 
have gone forth into new fields, but all have 
always been influenced throughout their 
careers by his teachings and kind advice. 
Many of his early associates were fore- 
men in his shops at the time of his death. 

He was a man of distinguished appear- 
ance, and possessed remarkable powers of 
leadership and personal magnetism. He 
had absolute control over his men, to whom 
he was always fairminded, respecting their 
rights, but at the same time demanded that 
they respect his ; consequently, he never 
experienced the unpleasantness of a strike 
or trouble with his employes. 

Although deeply engrossed in his busi- 
ness affairs, he was a man of public spirit, 
ever taking a lively but unpretending and 
quiet interest in local and State aft'airs. He 
was deeply concerned in the welfare of the 
young, and gave particular attention to the 
advancement of the Newark Technical 
School and similar institutions elsewhere. 
He believed that the youth of this and fu- 
ture generations would be benefited most 
by technical education and his influence was 
always enlisted in behalf of institutions 
where technical knowledge was taught. His 
private charities could not be listed, as what 
he bestowed was given without ostentation 
and without knowledge excepting to the 
participants. He was a member of New- 
ark Lodge No. 7, F. & A. M., and was a 
working member of the Presbyterian 
church. 

Mr. Eberhardt died March 31, 1901. 
He was survived by his wife and five chil- 
dren. Three sons, Frederick L. Eberhardt, 
Ulrich Eberhardt, Jr., and H. Ezra Eber- 



ss 



BIOGRAPHICAL CYCLOPEDIA 



hardt have since his death conducted the 
business, which has steadily advanced un- 
der their control. 

The news of Mr. Eberhardt's death was 
received with profound sorrow not alone 
by those with whom he was surrounded in 
his home city ; those who knew him in- 
timately or had had business transactions 



with him for many years before his death 
were greatly shocked and grieved. Numer- 
ous letters of condolence, all eulogizing him 
for his uprightness of character and busi- 
ness probity, were received from the ma- 
chinery trade and his customers every- 
where all agreeing that his death was an ir- 
reparable loss to the business community. 



AMZI DODD 

NEWARK 



AMZI DODD, LL.D., the first Vice- 
Chancellor of New Jersey and since 
1882 President of the Mutual Benefit Life 
Insurance Company of Newark, was born 
in what is now the township of Montclair, 
then part of the township of Bloomfield, 
Essex County, New Jersey, March 2, 1823. 
He is the second son of Dr. Joseph Smith 
Dodd and Maria Grover and a lineal de- 
scendant of Daniel Dod, an English Puri- 
tan, who emigrated to America about the 
year 1646, and, in company with other im- 
migrants, helped to form a settlement at 
Sagiis — now known as the city of Lynn, — 
a thriving seaport on Massachusetts Bay. 
This early American progenitor died prior 
to 1665, leaving four sons, all in their 
minority, the eldest of whom was named 
Daniel after his father. While yet under 
age he joined the colony of the Reverend 
Abraham Pierson, who founded the town 
of Newark in 1666, and to him a home lot 
was assigned in the neighborhood of what 
was for so many years known as the "Stone 
Bridge." He was a good mathematician, a 
surveyor by profession, and 1692 a member 
of the Colonial General Assembly. His son, 
John, his grandson, John, and his great- 
grandson, John, were all, in a direct line, 
ancestors of Dr. Joseph Smith Dodd, father 
of Amzi Dodd, and in their times were all 
men of mark. Dr. Dodd was born in 
Bloomfield, New Jersey, January 10, 1791, 
was graduated from Princeton College in 



18 13, and commenced the practice of medi- 
cine in his native place in 1816. He was a 
skillful physician, and a man widely esteem- 
ed and respected. He was elected to the 
State Senate in 1842, and was largely in- 
strumental in establishing the State Lunatic 
Asylum. He died September 5, 1847. 

Amzi Dodd was carefully educated at 
home and at the Bloomfield Academy, and ' 
in 1839 was so well advanced in his studies 
that he found no difficulty in securing ad- 
mission to the sophomore class in the Col- 
lege of New Jersey, his father's alma mater. 
In 1841 he was graduated with the highest 
honors, being chosen to deliver the Latin 
salutatory at the commencement in Septem- 
ber of that year. Among his classmates who 
have risen to distinction may be mentioned 
the Reverend Theodore Cuyler, the emi- 
nent Brooklyn divine; the Reverend Dr. 
Duffield, of Princeton University; General 
Francis P. Blkir, late of Missouri ; John T. 
Nixon, United States District Judge ; Ed- 
ward W. Scudder, of the New Jersey Su- 
preme Court ; the Reverend Dr. Potter, of 
Ohio; Professor A. Alexander Hodge; the 
Honorable Craig Biddle ; and others in 
legal and ministerial life. 

During the ensuing four years after leav- 
ing college Mr. Dodd was engaged in teach- 
ing, principally in Virginia, but, intending 
to become a lawyer, read law diligently, 
and gave his vacations to acquiring a prac- 
tical insight into its intricacies by service in 



BIOGRAPHICAL CYCLOPEDIA 



59 



the office of Miller & Whelpley, prominent 
lawyers at Morristown, New Jersey. In 
January, 1848, he was licensed as an attor- 
ney and admitted to the New Jersey bar, 
and afterward became associated in busi- 
ness with the Honorable Frederick T. Fre- 
linghuysen, then an eminent practitioner at 
the bar and later Secretary of State of the 
United States. In 1850 Mr. Dodd severed 
this connection to devote himself to the 
duties of the office of clerk of the Common 
Council of Newark. For three years he 
held this position, maintaining his own law 
offices, and attending to such practice as 
came his way. This finally grew to such 
volume that he resigned his office the more 
fully to devote himself to professional 
work. Early connection with corporation 
and fiduciary affairs led him largely into 
legal departments calling for judicial rather 
than forensic powers. Although occasion- 
ally taking part in litigated cases in court, 
he was far less inclined to jury trials than 
to arguments to the bench, in which his in- 
tellect and also his temperament found more 
congenial exercise. 

Mr. Dodd early developed ability as a 
public speaker. His first effort of import- 
ance was a Fourth of July oration, deliv- 
ered in the First Presbyterian Church in 
Newark in 1851. "His panegyric upon 
Washington fell from his tongue deep into 
every heart, and for many a day the young 
orator's name was on every lip." Later 
efforts about this time were a literary ad- 
dress at the commencement at Princeton 
College, and a discourse before the Essex 
County Bible Society, of which he was 
President. Opposed to the extension of 
slavery to the Territories, he was one of 
that resolute little band of anti-slavery men 
who raised their voices in loud protest 
against the movement in its favor, and as a 
"Freesoiler" he aided in the formation of 
the Rcpuljlican party and became an active 
champion of its principles. In 1856 he was 
selected to lead the fight in Essex and Hud- 
son Counties, being chosen as the Republi- 
can nominee for Congress. In this cam- 



paign, as well as in that of i860, which re- 
sulted in the election of President Lincoln, 
he won new laurels as an orator. In 1863 
he was elected by the Republicans of Essex 
County to the New Jersey Legislature, but 
declined a second term. Brilliant, logical, 
and powerful as an orator, he might, had 
he so willed, have achieved forensic dis- 
tinction equal to that of his most gifted con- 
temporaries. There was that in his nature, 
however, which inclined him to the role of 
counsellor rather than to that of advocate; 
and while gracefully yielding to the calls 
made upon him to deliver lectures before 
lyceums and institutions of learning, and 
to greet his old classmates at Princeton in 
an anniversary oration, he gradually relin- 
quished his public oratorical efforts, the 
more completely to devote himself to the 
demands of professional work. 

In 1 87 1, when the business of the Court 
of Chancery became so pressing that Chan- 
cellor Zabriskie was obliged to ask for the 
appointment of a Vice-Chancellor, Mr. 
Dodd was selected for the position. In the 
delicate and important work thus assigned 
to him he was engaged continuously until 
1875, when he resigned. In 1872 he was 
nominated by Governor Parker, and con- 
firmed by the Senate, as one of the Special 
Justices of the Court of Errors and Ap- 
peals, the highest judicial tribunal in the 
State. In 1878, toward the close of his 
term as Justice of the Court, the Governor 
of the State, General George B. McClellan, 
wrote to him as follows: 

State of New Jersey, Executive Dept. 
Trenton. January 18, 1878. 
Hon. .\mzi Dodd, Newark. 

Dear Sir: — .\lthougli your term of office 
as a member of the Court of .Appeals does 
not expire for several weeks, there are rea- 
sons which seem to render it advisable for 
me to take measures to fill the appointment 
at an early day. I do not care to make a 
nomination without first ascertaining the 
wishes of the i)arty most interested, and 1 
therefore write to you that it will afford mc 
peculiar satisfaction to be permitted to nom- 
inate you as your own successor. Perhaps 
you will pardon me for saying that I am 



6o 



BIOGRAPHICAL CYCLOPEDIA 



led to this determination by the high esti- 
mate in which you are held by all who have 
been thrown in contact with you. 

Very truly and respectfully, your obedi- 
ent servant, 

(Signed) George B. McClellan. 

To this flattering recognition of his ser- 
vices, accompanied by so earnest a sugges- 
tion that he accept re-appointment, Judge 
Dodd returned an affirmative reply, where- 
upon Governor McClellan made the ap- 
pointment, sending with his commission the 
following complimentary letter : 

State of New Jersey, Executive Dept. 
Trenton, February 7, 1878. 
Hon. Amzi Dodd, Court of Errors and 
Appeals. 
My Dear Sir: — I take great pleasure in 
forwarding to you the new commission for 
the office you now hold. This appointment 
was made solely in consequence of your 
eminent merit and without solicitation from 
any quarter, and it is very gratifying to me 
that you have consented to accept it. 
Very truly your friend, 

(Signed) George B. McClellan. 

In 1881 Judge Dodd was again called to 
serve the State as Vice-Chancellor, taking 
the office at the request of Chancellor Run- 
yon ; but in the following year he resigned 
this position, and also his seat upon the 
bench of the Court of Errors and Appeals, 
being moved to do so by the pressure 
brought to bear upon him to accept the 
Presidency of the Mutual Benefit Life In- 
surance Com])any of Newark, a corporation 
with which he had been officially connected 
as mathematician for nearly twenty years. 
In this office he succeeded his friend, Lewis 
C. Grover, who had resigned. In 1875 
Judge Dodd was appointed a member of the 
New Jersey Board of Riparian Commis- 
sioners by Governor Bedle, and held that 
position until April, 1887. In 1876 the Su- 
preme Court of the State appointed him 
one of the managers of the New Jersey 
Soldiers' Home. In this service — a gra- 
tuitous one — he has continued to the pres- 
ent day, laboring with zeal and scrupulous 



fidelity in the interests of these veteran 
wards of the State. It is a noteworthy cir- 
cumstance that, though of pronounced Re- 
publican political views, the several public 
offices he has held have been by appoint- 
ments received from Democratic adminis- 
trations, and, it is to be added, unsolicited 
on his part. 

Judge Dodd's opmions as an equity judge 
are to be found in the New Jersey Reports, 
volumes 22 to 34, inclusive ; and as a mem- 
ber of the Court of Errors and Appeals, the 
court of last resort for the review of the 
Supreme, Chancery, and inferior courts, 
his opinions are in volumes 36 to 42, inclu- 
sive. They are regarded by lawyers as pos- 
sessing superior merit, and belonging to the 
best class of juridical productions. Some 
of them have become authoritative cases in 
important questions. One of the most nota- 
ble is that of the Pennsylvania Railroad 
Company against the National Railway 
Company, decided in 1873, and recorded in 
volume 7, C. E. Gr., 441. The decree of 
Vice-Chancellor Dodd in this case was sup- 
ported by a train of argument so clear and 
conclusive that no appeal was taken from 
it, though great property interests as well 
as public questions of great importance 
were involved. The result of the injunc- 
tion issued against the defendant prohibit- 
ing the construction of the proposed road 
was the passage soon after of the general 
railroad law of the State, in pursuance of 
the suggestions in the opinion that such a 
law was the necessary means for obtaining 
what the judicial tribunals under existing 
laws could not assume to supply. 

In 1874 he received the degree of LL.D. 
from his alma mater. Judge Dodd's active 
and useful life has been absolutely free 
from sensational attempts to arrest public 
attention and singularly devoid of ostenta- 
tion, yet no man in the State is better 
known, more highly respected, or more pop- 
ular. His entire career has been marked by 
uprightness and sincerity of purpose ; devo- 
tion to duty and zeal in the public interest 
have signalized every step of his advance. 



BIOGRAPHICAL CYCLOPEDIA 



6i 



Judge Dodd was married, in 1852, to 
Jane Frame, a daughter of William Frame, 
of Bloomfield. He resided in Newark until 
the summer of i860, when he removed to 
his present home in Bloomfield. His do- 
mestic life has been a delightful one, and 
the social position of his family has been 
second to none. Of the nine children of 
the marriage three daughters and three sons 
are living. The eldest, Julia, is the wife of 
the Reverend H. B. Frissell, D. D., princi- 



pal of the Hampton, Virginia, Normal and 
Agricultural Institute, the able successor of 
General Armstrong, its famous founder. 
One of his daughters, Caroline, is the wife 
of Leonard Richards, a New York mer- 
chant, and the third, unmarried, resides 
with her parents. One of the sons, William 
S. Dodd, is a lawyer. Another, Edward 
Whelpley Dodd, is in business. The third, 
Joseph Smith Dodd, is a practicing physi- 
cian. 



WILLIAM ADGATE LORD 

ORANGE 



WILLIAM ADGATE LORD, a 
young and popular lawyer of 
Orange, Essex County, New Jersey, was 
born in Jersey City, October 7, 1870. He 
is the son of the late Qmrles Douglas Lord 
and Lucy Ann Fay (daughter of Joel Wood 
Fay and granddaughter of Joel Fay), a 
grandson of Joshua A. Lord, a great-grand- 
son of Major Joseph Lord, a great-great- 
grandson of Joseph Lord, St., and a great- 
great-grandson of the Reverend Benjamin 
Lord, D. D. Through his father he is de- 
scended from William the Conqueror, 
Henry I., Henry II., John, Henry III., and 
Edward I., kings of England ; from Sir Gil- 
bert de Clare, third earl of Gloucester ; and 
from Ralph and Hugh Stafford, first and 
second earls of Stafford. He is also de- 
scended from Ralph de Nevill, first earl of 
Westmoreland ; from Sir Thomas Dacre, 
sixth lord of Dacre ; from Sir Richard 
Fienes; and from Sir Thomas Fienes, 
eighth lord Dacre. 

William A. Lord has lived in Orange 
since he was ten years of age. He attended 
private school and was graduated from the 
Orange High School in 1889, having com- 
pleted the usual three years' course in two 
years. He immediately entered the news- 
paper profession, writing for the Orange 
Journal, the Orange Evening Mail, the 



Newark Sunday Standard, the Newark 
Daily Advertiser, the Newark Times, the 
New York Sun, the Newark Evening 
Neics, and the New York Times successive- 
ly. He was appointed clerk of the Orange 
District Court at the time it was establish- 
ed, April I, 1896, and was admitted to the 
bar in February, 1899, resigning his posi- 
tion as District Court clerk in June of that 
year to begin the active practice of law in 
Orange, with an office in the National Bank 
Building. He was admitted to practice as a 
counsellor-at-law in February, 1902. 

Mr. Lord became a private in Gattling 
Gun Company A, N. G. N. J., April 27, 
1895, and at the time of the outbreak of the 
Spanish American war was second lieuten- 
ant of Company II of the Second Regi- 
ment, having been elected to that office 
March i, 1898. He served in the same ca- 
pacity during the war when his regiment 
became the Second New Jersey Volunteer 
Infantry, stationed during most of the time 
at Jacksonville, Florida. He became first 
lieutenant in Company H, Fifth Infantry, 
N. G. N. J., in 1903 and the same year was 
made captain. He resigned in 1904 but was 
again elected captain of his old company in 
1909. 

He was elected a member of the New 
Jersey General Assembly from Essex Coun- 



62 



BIOGRAPHICAL CYCLOPEDIA 



ty in November, 1900, on the Republican 
ticket, by over 19,000 plurality, and served 
on the important committees on Revision 
of Laws and Militia. He became City 
Counsel of Orange in 1904 and still holds 
that position. He is a Past Archon of 
Orange Conclave, No. 475, Improved Order 
Heptasophs, Past Commander of Colonel 
Emerson H. Liscum Camp, No. 94, Spanish 
American War Veterans, and Past Com- 
mander of the New Jersey Spanish 
American War Veterans, a member of 
Orange Lodge, No. 135, Benevolent and 
Protective Order of Elks, of Corinthian 
Lodge, No. 57, Free and Accepted Masons, 
Orange Chapter, No. 23, Royal Arch Ma- 
sons, Jersey Commandery, No. 19, Knights 



Templar, Salam Temple, Ancient Arabic 
Order Nobles of the Mystic Shrine, the 
McKinley and Roosevelt Club of the 
Oranges, the Union League Club of the 
Oranges, The New England Society of 
Orange, Orange High School Alumni As- 
sociation, the Military Order of Foreign 
Wars, the Seventh Army Corps Veteran 
Association, Republican Indian League and 
other clubs. He is also vice-chairman of 
the Essex County Republican Committee. 

He was married April 16, 1903, to Sarah 
Homer Roberts, daughter of William 
Henry Harrison Roberts of Englewood and 
has four children, William Adgate Lord, 
Jr., Mary Roberts Lord, Genevieve Fay 
Lord and Sarah Lord. 



HENRY RICHARD LINDERMAN 

NEWARK 



THE LINDERMAN family in the 
United States traces its descent from 
a brother of Margaretta Linderman, the 
wife of Hans Luther, and the mother of Dr. 
Martin Luther, the famous leader of the 
German Reformation. One of Margaretta 
(Linderman) Luther's brothers, M. Diet- 
rich Linderman, was mayor of Dresden in 
1503 ; in the same century other members of 
the family were respectively, John Linder- 
man, LL. D., mayor of Leipsic and profes- 
sor of jurisprudence in the University; Cas- 
per Linderman, M. D., first physician to the 
Electors, George, and John Frederick; Ni- 
cholas Linderman, senator at Gotha; Cy- 
rian Linderman, director of the Latin 
School in the same place ; and Laurence 
Linderman, L.L. D., counsellor to the Elec- 
tor Augustus. Many members of the fam- 
ily in this and succeeding centuries were 
Lutheran clergymen. 

Jacob V. Linderman, who had first gone 
from Saxony to England, came thence to 
America in 1710 and settled in Orange 
County, New York, where he became a 



large landowner, an elder in the Presbyter- 
ian Church, and a man of much prominence 
in that section. 

John Jordan Linderman, M. D., his 
grandson, was born in Orange County, New 
York, in 1787, in the house built by his 
grandfather, studied medicine at the Col- 
lege of Physicians and Surgeons under Doc- 
tors \'alentine Mott, Post Hosack and Dav- 
id Hosack, and after graduation settled in 
Pike County, Pennsylvania, in 1813, where 
he practiced his profession on both sides of 
the Delaware River for nearly fifty years, 
and where he married Rachel Brodhead, 
daughter of one of the judges of that 
judicial district. Two of Dr. Linder- 
man's brothers were lawyers of emi- 
nence; Willet Linderman, who was District 
Attorney of Ulster County from 1837 to 
1846, and James Oliver Linderman, who 
was Judge of the Ulster County Court from 
1842 until his death in 1856. 

Henry Richard Linderman, M. D., Direc- 
tor of the United States Mints, was born 
near Milford, Pike County, Penna, in 1825, 



BIOGRAPHICAL CYCLOPEDIA 



63 



the eldest son of Dr. John Jordan and Ra- 
chel Brodhead Linderman. He studied 
medicine with his father, was graduated 
from the University of the City of New 
York, Doctor of Medicine, in 1846, and 
practiced in Pike and Carbon Counties, 
Pennsylvania. He was chief clerk of the 
United States ]\Iint at Philadelphia, 1855 
64; and Director of the United States Mint 
at Philadelphia and in charge of all the 
branch mints and assay offices in the 
United States, 1866-69. ^^i July, 1869, he 
was appointed United States Treasury com- 
missioner to examine the western mints and 
adjust some intricate bullion questions. In 
1870 he was sent to Europe by President 
Grant to visit the mints in London, Paris, 
Brussels and Berne to report on their coin- 
age methods and on the relative values of 
gold and silver as currency metals, and his 
report on his return in 1871 favored a sin- 
gle gold standard. In 1872 he was appointed 
a commissioner with Professor Robert E. 
Rogers of the University of Pennsylvania, 
to examine the subject of wastage in oper- 
ating on gold and silver bullion and was 
also the government commissioner for fit- 
ting up the new mint and assay office in San 
Francisco. In 1872 he made an elaborate 
report on the condition of the market for 
silver and predicted the decline in its rela- 
tive value to gold, which afterward took 
place. With a view of obtaining an advan- 
tageous market for the large and increasing 
production of that metal in the United 
States, he projected the coinage of the trade 
dollar which was subseejuently authorized by 
law and successfully introduced into orien- 
tal markets with marked advantage to 
American commerce. In the same report 
he called attention to the disadvantage aris- 
ing from the computation and ([notation of 
exchange with Great Britain on the old and 
complicated colonial basis and from the un- 
dervaluation of foreign coins in Cduiputing 
the value of invoices and in levying and col- 
lecting duties on foreign merchandise at the 
U. S. custom houses. He was the author 



of the Act of March 3, 1873, which cor- 
rected these defects. 

Dr. Linderman was the first to recom- 
mend the adoption of a system of redemp- 
tion for the inferior coins used as change 
money for the purpose of keeping their 
purchasing power on an equality with the 
money of unlimited legal tender. He was 
the author of the Coinage Act of 1873. In 
1869 he had assisted John Jay Knox, then 
deputy comptroller of the currency, in 
framing the first act for the codification of 
the mint legislation, which was not acted 
upon. LTpon his return from Europe in 
1871-72, he entirely re-wrote this act, add- 
ing and including the provisions demonetiz- 
ing silver and putting the country on a gold 
standard, making the Director of the Mint 
an officer reporting to the Secretary of the 
Treasury instead of the President, and au- 
thorizing the coinage of the trade dollar for 
oriental commerce. He secured its passage 
after two years' work before Congress in 
1873 and was the first Director of the 
United States Mints under the new law, 
1873-79. He declined to serve the Japanese 
government at a very large salary in organ- 
izing a new mint system for the empire. 
With Henry Dodge and Frederic F. Low 
of San Francisco, named by him as col- 
leagues, as the United States Treasury 
Commission, he investigated the San Fran- 
cisco mint, custom house and other Federal 
departments on the Pacific coa.st (without 
additional compensation) in 1877, and the 
over-work brought on the illness which re- 
.sulted in his death. Besides his reports to 
the President and the Treasury Depart- 
ment, he wrote largely and ably, during all 
his official career, on coinage and financial 
subjects, contributed the articles on the 
Mint and Coinage to Johnson's Encyclo- 
pedia. (1876), was the author of "Argu- 
ment for the Gold Standard," (1877) and 
"Money and Legal Tender," (1877). He 
died in Washington, District of Columbia, 
Tanuary 28, 1879, when but 53 years of age. 

HENRY RICl lARD LINDERMAN, the 
only son of Dr. Henry R. Linderman, and 



64 



BIOGRAPHICAL CYCLOPEDIA 



the subject of this sketch, was born in Phila- 
delpliia, Pennsylvania, September 8, 1858. 
Through his grandfather, Dr. John J. Lin- 
derman, he is the great-great-grandson of 
Moses Shaw of the Fifth New York Regi- 
ment, Continental Line, killed at the battle 
of Bemis Heights; and also a descendant of 
Jacob and Cornelius Linderman, both of 
whom served in the Dutchess County 
troops. A near kinsman of these was Fred- 
erick Linderman, a sergeant in the German 
Regiment of Philadelphia, Continental Line. 
Through his grandmother, Rachel (Brod- 
head) Linderman, he is descended from 
Captain Daniel Brodhead of King Charles 
H's Grenadiers, who accompanied Sir Rich- 
ard Nicolls's expedition which captured 
New Amsterdam from the Dutch in 1664, 
and who after commanding the English 
forces at Esopus on the Hudson, settled in 
the Province. Captain Brodhead was a 
grandnephew of John Brodhead, lord of the 
manor of Monk-Britton in Yorkshire, 
whose line became extinct in England in 
1847 in the person of Sir Thomas Living- 
stone Brodhead, Baronet. Rachel (Brod- 
head) Linderman was a daughter of Judge 
Richard Brodhead of Pike County, Pennsyl- 
vania, a sister of Richard Brodhead, United 
States Senator from Pennsylvania, a grand- 
daughter of Garrett Brodhead, who served 
through the Revolutionary War with 
the New Jersey troops, and of Captain 
Samuel Drake, of the Pennsylvania Militia, 
also in active service: a grand niece of 
Charles Brodhead, a captain in the French 
and Indian War; a grand niece of Luke 
Brodhead, a captain in the Sixth Pennsyl- 
vania Regiment, Continental Line, who was 
severely wounded at the battle of Brandy- 
wine ; and of Daniel Brodhead, colonel of 
the Eighth Pennsylvania, Continental Line, 
Commandant of the Western Military De- 
partment from 1778 to 1 78 1, a member of 
the Society of the Cmcmnati, and Survey- 
or General of Pennsylvania for eleven years 
after the close of the Revolution. On the 
reorganization of the army in 1781, Daniel 
Brodhead became Colonel of the First 



Pennsylvania Regiment, Continental Line, 
and was retired at the close of the war 
with the rank of Brevet-Brigadier General 
and the thanks of Congress. His only son, 
Daniel Brodhead, Jr., was a lieutenant in 
Shee's Pennsylvania Battalion, Continental 
Line, was captured after two years' service 
and died a prisoner of war. 

Mr. Linderman's mother was Emily Hol- 
land Davis, a daughter of George Hyer 
Davis of Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, 
and a granddaughter of Samuel Philip Hol- 
land of Wilkesbarre, Pennsylvania. Her 
father was one of the early coal operators 
of the Carbon and Wyoming district in 
Pennsylvania, and related to the Coleman 
and Bull families, both prominent in Revo- 
lutionary affairs in Lancaster County ; and 
her grandfather, an Englishman of large 
means, invested extensively in coal lands 
and was the first President of the old Penn- 
sylvania Coal Company. 

Mr. Linderman was educated in private 
schools, prepared for college in the Episco- 
pal school of St. Clement, EUicott City, 
Maryland, and then entered Lehigh LTniver- 
sity, where he completed a special three 
years' course in the class of 1879. He then 
studied law with the Honorable John B. 
Storm, of Stroudsburgh, Pennsylvania, rep- 
resentative in Congress for the tenth Penn- 
sylvania District ; was admitted to the bar 
as an attorney and counsellor of the lower 
courts in 1883 and as an attorney and coun- 
sellor of the Supreme Court of Pennsylvan- 
ia in 1885, and practiced for five years. In 
1890 he first engaged in the insurance busi- 
ness, and in 1894 removed to Newark to 
take charge of the business of the Washing- 
ton Life Insurance Company, of New York, 
and for twelve years was the company's 
general agent for the state of New Jersey. 
In 1906, after the reorganization of that 
company under a new management, he as- 
sumed charge of the New Jersey business 
of the Germania Life Insurance Company, 
of New York, and at present has entire 
oversight of their business in this state. 
In 1899 he married Mrs. Harriet S. 





^l^^ 



BIOGRAPHICAL CYCLOPEDIA 



65 



Wright, a daughter of CorneHus J. Sprague 
of Brooklyn, New York, and granddaugh- 
ter of Roswell Sprague, (and Mehitable 
Hobart), a well known merchant of New 
York and Charleston, South Carolina, an 
organizer of the Consolidated Gas Company 
of New York, and a prominent figure in the 
public movements and financial life of that 
city a generation ago. Mr. Linderman is a 
member of the Protestant Episcopal Church 



and has been active in its affairs. He served 
three terms as a vestryman of the House of 
Prayer, four years as a delegate to the Dio- 
cesan Convention, and two years as regis- 
trar of the Diocese of Newark, and at pres- 
ent (1909) is a vestryman of St. John's 
Church in the W'oodside section of New- 
ark. He is a member of the Pennsylvania 
Society of the Sons of the Revolution and 
the Zeta Psi college fraternity. 



ALBERT IRVING DRAYTON 

JERSEY CITY 



ALBERT IRVING DRAYTON, an ac- 
knowledged authority on the subject of 
land titles and a New Jersey lawyer of ex- 
ceptionally high ability and attainments, 
was born in Jersey City, that State, August 
14, 1869. He is the son of Dr. Henry S. 
Drayton, a well-known and successful phy- 
sician, and Almira E. Guernsey, being de- 
.scended on both sides from old and notable 
American lineage. His grandparents were 
William R. and Mary M. (Shipman) Dray- 
ton and Dr. Henr>' and ^lartha J. (Halsey) 
Guernsey. His great-grandparents on the 
paternal side were Henry and Mary (Rood) 
Drayton, and Jacob and Mary (Mulford) 
Shipman, while those on his mother's side 
were William and Elizabeth Nancy (Sco- 
field) Guernsey and Rensselaer and Jane 
Halsey. These names represent some of 
the oldest and most distinguished families 
in New Jersey, many of whose members 
have been prominent in the history of the 
colony and State, and eminent in both civil 
and military life. William Henry Dray- 
ton, one of Mr. Drayton's ancestors, was 
Qiief Justice and Governor of South Caro- 
lina in 1776-77, and another member of the 
family was Captain Percival Drayton, fa- 
mous in his day as a naval commander. 

Albert I. Drayton received his prepara- 
tory education in the public and private 
schools of Jersey City and Montclair, later 



attending the Jersey City High School. En- 
tering the New York University, he was 
graduated from that institution in the class 
of 1888 with the degree of bachelor of sci- 
ence. Having decided upon the law as his 
profession, he was a student in the offices 
of Randolph, Condict & Black, of Jersey 
City, from 1888 to 1891, in the meantime 
taking a course of lectures at the Columbia 
Law School. He was admitted to the bar 
of New Jersey as an attorney in Novem- 
ber, 1891, and as a counselor in February, 
1895. Ever since his admission he has car- 
ried on an active general practice, being a 
member of the firm of Condict, Black & 
Drayton from 1901 to 1902, and from the 
latter year to 1908 of Black & Drayton. 
He has proved a success at the bar, his abil- 
ity attracting attention and support. He 
has been identified with much important 
litigation, in all his cases displaying skill, 
learning, judgment, and all those qualities 
most to be desired in a practitioner. He 
prepares his causes for trial with exacting 
care and guards his clients' interests with a 
fidelity that has won for him their regard 
and confidence. His legal connection with 
important real estate matters induced him 
to make a close study of that subject and 
he ranks today as a recognized expert in all 
relating thereto, his views being authorita- 
tive. He was president and general mana- 



66 



BIOGRAPHICAL CYCLOPEDIA 



ger of the New Jersey Title and Abstract 
Company of Jersey City for ten years, 
from 1895 to 1905, in which capacity he 
demonstrated liis vakie to the enterprise in 
question. 

He has many interests outside the law 
and is secretary and treasurer of the Ke- 
wanee Manufacturing Company, vice-pres- 
ident and director of the Jersey City Trust 
Company, and a director and officer in vari- 
ous other corporations. He holds member- 
ship in the Hudson County and the State 
Bar Associations, the University Club of 
Hudson County, the Baltusrol Golf Club, 
the Machinery Club, of New York, the 
New York University Alumni Association, 
the Delta Phi fraternity, Englewood Golf 
Club, the Englewood Field Club and other 
organizations. He has served as president 
of the Jersey City Golf Club for eight years 
and is first vice-president of the Alumni 



Association of Gamma Oiapter of Delta 
Phi. He is a Republican politically but has 
never desired or held a place of public 
preferment, his professional and personal 
interests commanding all his time and atten- 
tion. He is an Episcopalian in his religious 
faith and attends St. Paul's Episcopal 
Church, of Englewood, New Jersey. 

Mr. Drayton married in Jersey City, Oc- 
tober 14, 1896, Sarah Conselyea Trap- 
hagen, daughter of Henry and Annie 
(Campbell) Traphagen, of Jersey City, and 
a descendant of one of the oldest and most 
prominent families of New Jersey. Three 
children were born to this marriage ; Wil- 
liam Rood, Grace Traphagen and Katha- 
rine Irving. Mr. Drayton is one of Jersey 
City's representative men and in his per- 
son the family name is well and worthily 
carried, his own achievements adding fresh 
credit thereto. 



WILLIAM PARMENTER MARTIN 

NEWARK 



WILLIAM PARMENTER MAR- 
TIN, a member of the New Jer- 
sey and New York bars and an influential 
leader in the Republican politics of the 
former State, was born in Virginia City, 
Nevada, October 8, 1871. He is descended 
from the old English family of John Mar- 
tin who came from Devonshire, England, 
to the plantation of Dover on the Piscata- 
qua River in the Massachusetts Bay Colony, 
now New Hampshire, in 1634, under the 
patronage of Gorges and Mason of the Ply- 
mouth Colony. In 1668. John Martin re- 
moved to Woodbridge township in New 
Jersey and became one of the most promin- 
ent men in the new settlement. The pa- 
ternal grandmother of Mr. Martin was 
Anne Elizabeth Parmenter, daughter of 
James and Maria Haskell (Thayer) Par- 
menter; James Parmenter was of Cam- 
bridge and Maria Haskell Thayer was of 



tlie Boston family of that name. Mr. Mar- 
tin's grandfather, William Mulford Martin 
was a Presbyterian clergyman. James 
Parmenter Martin, father of William Par- 
menter Martin, was a leading figure in San 
Francisco and also represented the Bank of 
California in Virginia City, Nevada. On 
the maternal side, Mr. Martin's mother was 
Holdena White Bell, a daughter of the 
Reverend Samuel Bookstaver Bell. She is 
descended from Governor Bradford of the 
Plymouth Colony, from Captain James 
Avery of New London, Connecticut, who 
commanded the united forces of the col- 
onies in King Philip's wars, and from 
John LIumfrey, deputy governor of the 
Massachusetts Bay Colony, and first major 
general of the colony. Among Mr. Mar- 
tin's ancestors were five who fought in the 
war of the revolution and one was a naval 
captain in the war of 1812. The family is 





J^^^^iyLUii. 



BIOGRAPHICAL CYCLOPEDIA 



67 



also related to that of Chancellor Wal- 
worth. For many generations the ances- 
tors of Mr. Martin have been residents of 
Union and Middlesex Counties of New Jer- 
sey. 

Mr. Martin's early education was ob- 
tained in the public schools of San Fran- 
cisco. Later he entered the Columbia Uni- 
versity Law School, from which he was 
graduated in 1892, becoming employed af- 
terward by the law firm of Tracy, Board- 
man & Piatt, in New York. He remained 
in their office a short time, preferring to es- 
tablish a practice of his own in that city, 
which he has since maintained. He was 
admitted to the bar of New Jersey early 
in 1893 and thereupon opened a branch of- 
fice in Newark. As a lawyer he has been 
successful. His professional career has 
been active and his reputation as a coun- 
selor of ability is known in both New York 
and New Jersey. 

Mr. Martin married Miss Margaret l\Ior- 
rison of Geneva, New York, June 10, 1896. 

An earnest "Progressive" Republican in 
his political principles, he has proved a 
powerful factor in the Republican party in 
New Jersey and has figured conspicuously 
in its recent history. He served as a mem- 
ber of the Common Council of Newark 
for three terms, 1902- 1907 inclusive, and 
was for the same period chairman of the 
Committee on Compilation and Revision of 
the City Charter and of the laws relating to 
Newark, as well as a member of the Fi- 
nance and Legislation Committees. He 
was chosen as the leader of the Republican 
minority on the floor of the Council during 
1907. 

From the beginning of his appearance in 
public life he entered ujion the work of re- 
form and honesty in the administration of 
public affairs that has made him one of the 
leaders of his party in the state. In the 
Common Council he initiated a campaign 
for changes in many of the city ordinances 
and lead the movement against the Special 
Privileges Corporations and the Boss Sys- 
tem in the party to which he belonged. He 



was the first public official in the city, coun- 
ty or state openly to oppose the Public Ser- 
vice Corporation and he began the fight 
single-handed and alone. He prevented 
the looping of the New City Hall by the 
trolley system, an accomplishment which 
has ever since been recognized as of the 
greatest advantage to the city and to the 
general operation of traveling conditions. 
His activity was successful in developing 
popular opposition to the scheme, that in 
the end the Public Service Corporation 
withdrew its application and abandoned the 
plan. He also led the fight against the five 
per cent, ordinance agreement, thus saving 
the city of Newark upwards of thirty thou- 
sand dollars a year. He was also foremost 
in the movement for the betterment and the 
progress of the affairs of the city, favored 
the City Hall lighting plant and the munici- 
pal lighting plant, and was active in the 
preparation and adoption of the theatre 
ordinance and in the support of measures 
for the reorganization of the Building De- 
partment of the city. 

In 1905 he undertook the famous cam- 
paign which Everett Colby made to secure 
the nomination for State Senator. At per- 
sonal sacrifice of time and money and 
against the advice of many of his friends 
Mr. Martin took upon himself this re- 
sponsibility, led in the work of building up 
an independent organization, won the vic- 
tory in the primary, and in the election was 
successful in electing the Senator, Sheriflf 
and Assemblymen. In the legislative ses- 
sion of 1906 many progressive bills were 
introduced by the Senator and .Assembly- 
men of Essex County and many of them 
were prepared by Mr. Martin, including the 
primary recount bill, the repeal of the act 
for the protection of fraudulent promoters, 
and other important measures. 

In the autumn of 1906 after the regular 
faction of the party had been defeated at 
the polls, Mr. Martin was offered the 
Chairmanship of the County Committee of 
Essex County, but declined the honor. 
Again in the primaries of 1907 and in the 



68 



BIOGRAPHICAL CYCLOPEDIA 



subsequent election he won in opposition 
to the rgular party leaders. He was elected 
a member of the New Jersey Legislature in 
1908 and in that body was a leader of the 
"Progressive" Republicans. He was talk- 
ed of first for Speaker of the Assembly but 
was finally chosen unanimously for leader 
of the majority. In that position he was 
the foremost figure of one of the most in- 
teresting and important sessions of the leg- 
islature that New Jersey has known in the 
present generation, and aided materially in 
securing the enactment into law of several 
important reforms. 

In 1908 Mr. Martin was tendered the 
support of a large number of influential 
friends for the nomination for Congress in 
the Seventh District, to succeed the Honor- 
able Richard Wayne Parker, but declined 
to enter the lists, believing that his duty 
was to go to Trenton and there make a 
fight for the enactment of a proper public 
utilities law and other important progres- 
sive measures. He therefore became a can- 
didate for nomination to the General As- 
sembly and, after a hard fought battle in a 
primary, with the largest vote ever polled 
at a primary in the county, he won by a 
plurality of five hundred votes over his 
nearest competitor and was re-elected. 

Mr. Martin has at all times acted inde- 



pendently on political questions but 
throughout has been a zealous and ardent 
supporter of progressive Republican prin- 
ciples. He is a young and able fight- 
er, and a man of breadth and wide ex- 
perience. He has been steadfastly devoted 
to the cause of pure politics and his capable 
work in this direction has gained for him 
the respect of all classes, regardless of 
partisan affiliations. His devotion to and 
disinterested labors in behalf of represent- 
ative government have become generally 
known to the citizens of his State. As a 
public speaker he is brilliant and forceful, 
carrying conviction to the minds of his 
hearers, as he never hesitates to speak free- 
ly on the public platform in the cause of 
the correction of political abuses, always 
advocating with all his strength those 
principles of progress and a square deal for 
all, by which government by the people can 
only be upheld and preserved. 

Mr. Martin is a member of the Bar Asso- 
ciation of the City of New York, Lawyers' 
Qub of Essex County, Lincoln Club, Rose- 
ville Athletic Association, California So- 
ciety of New York, University Club of 
Newark, Essex Country Club, Board of 
Trade of Newark, Republican Club of New 
York, Lawyers' Club New York and many 
bodies of the Masonic Order. 



ROBERT DODD MEAD 

NEWARK 



ROBERT DODD MEAD, secretary of 
the Howard Savings Institution, New- 
ark, New Jersey, was born in Newark on 
May 19, 1851. His father was Theodore 
Mead, and his mother was Johanna Mary 
(Dodd) Mead, both of Newark. He was 
educated in the public schools of Newark, 
and after graduating was in the dry goods 
commission business for a number of years. 
In 1876 he became connected with the 
Howard Savings Institution, and has been 
with that institution ever since. 



During the thirty-three years he has been 
associated with the Howard Savings Insti- 
tution, he has seen the wonderful growth 
of the city of Newark and the relative im- 
portance and influence of the financial in- 
stitution in the business world. In poli- 
tics Mr. Mead is an Independent. He is 
a member of the Roseville Athlectic Asso- 
ciation, and of the Roseville Presbyterian 
Church. He married, December 26, 1877, 
Anna Dow Baldwin, daughter of Robert J. 
and Anna D. (Joralemon) Baldwin. He 



BIOGRAPHICAL CYCLOPEDIA 



69 



has one son, Edgar B. Mead, who married 
Adeline Mabille, daughter of Henry P. and 
Gertrude Mabille. 

The Mead family is one whose members 
have distinguished themselves in literature 
and war. Its lineage contains many noted 
names. The founders of the familv in 



America came from Germany in 1690, and 
settled in New York City; afterwards they 
moved to Pompton Plains, New Jersey. 
From Peter Mead, who died in 1697, there 
followed John, Jacob, Henry, Jacob and 
then Theodore, the father of Robert Dodd 
:\Iead. 



JACOB HAUSSLING 

NEWARK 



JACOB HAUSSLING, mayor of the 
city of Newark, was born February 22, 
1855, in Halsey Street, Newark. New Jer- 
sey, and has resided in the ward in which 
he was born all his life. His father, Henry 
Haussling, was born in Bavaria, in 1828, 
and emigrated to the LTnited States when 
twenty years of age. He was a blacksmith 
and locksmith, and followed those voca- 
tions for many years. Later in life he en- 
gaged in the manufacture of mineral water, 
a line of business which is continued by his 
son. Henry Haussling died in 1892 ; his 
wife, Josephine (Freund) Haussling de- 
parted this life in 1872. 

Jacob Haussling obtained his education 
in St. Mar}''s Parochial School, the Second 
Ward Grammar School and Stratton's Bus- 
iness College. His father believed in the 
old German rule, that the sons of the fam- 
ily .should become proficient in some art or 
trade, and the boy went to work at marble 
cutting. At the age of seventeen he became 
actively associated with his father in the 
mineral water business. At that time the 
concern needed but one horse and wagon 
to deliver its output. Now, it is one of the 
largest businesses of its kind in the city. 
He later saw the advantage of establishing 
a factory for the construction of soda water 
apparatus, and formed a corporation for 
this purpose, which has been successfully 
conducted since. 

The father, Henry Haussling, was for 
many years a leader of the Gcrman-Ameri- 



can element in Newark, and was admired 
and ioved by all who came in contact with 
him, whether natives of Germany or else- 
where. The cloak of his popularity em- 
braced his son, who identified himself at an 
early age with the Democratic party. In 
1888, his friends, without his knowledge 
or consent, placed his name before the party 
convention as a candidate for the nomina- 
tion for sheriff, and he received a large plu- 
rality vote. The following year he was 
named for county register, and after an ex- 
citing campaign was defeated by Richard 
Coogan, the Republican candidate, by sev- 
enteen votes in a total poll of 62,000. In 
1890 he received the nomination for sheriflf 
and was elected by a plurality of 3,000 over 
Henry M. Doremus. In 1896, when the 
free silver agitation had alienated thou- 
sands of New Jersey Democrats, Mr. 
Haussling consented to lead the battle of 
his party as shrievalty candidate, although 
he knew that the obstacles were almost in- 
surmountable. His opponent again was 
Henry M. Doremus, who this time was suc- 
cessful, although Mr. Haussling ran 8,000 
ahead of his ticket. 

In 1899 Mr. Haussling was nominated 
for .sheriff for a third time. The Republi- 
can nominee, John llomicU, retired a week 
before the election and George Virtue, who 
was then nominated, was elected. In 1898 
Mr. Haussling was the candidate of his 
party for the Assembly on what was known 



^o 



BIOGRAPHICAL CYCLOPEDIA 



as the Rig Ticket, all the Democratic nom- 
inees being men of much prominence. In 
1906 he consented, at the solicitation of 
many friends in both parties, to enter upon 
a campaign for the Democratic nomination 
for the mayoralty. The political situation 
was full of interest, owing to the recent en- 
actment of the so-called Bishop's Bill to 
regulate the Hquor traffic and also to the 
heavy increase in the tax burdens of the 
citizens of Newark. 

Mr. Haussling was nominated in the 
Democratic primaries over a number of 
other competitors and at the election was 



successful, receiving the majority over all 
the votes cast for his Republican and Inde- 
pendent opponents. He was inaugurated 
mayor of Newark January i, 1907, suc- 
ceeding Henry M. Doremus against whom 
he had twice run as candidate for sheriff, 
once successfully and once unsuccessfully. 
He was again elected mayor in 1908 and be- 
gan his new term January i, 1909. 

Mr. Haussling was united in marriage in 
Newark, January 11, 1874, to Miss Ellen 
Elligott. They are the parents of four chil- 
dren : Henry J., Elizabeth, Jacob and Jose- 
phine. 



CHARLES MEEKS MASON 

NEWARK 



CHARLES MEEKS MASON, was 
born in Natchez, Mississippi, May 7, 
1876, son of Samuel A. and Mary P. (Mel- 
len) Mason. On the maternal line he traces 
his ancestry through some of the most il- 
lustrious members of the bench and bar of 
New England, to William Pepperell, who 
was born in Plymouth, Wales, and came to 
America in 1668, settled in Kittery, Maine, 
where in 1690, he was made Judge of the 
Court of Common Pleas and was Colonel 
of the Militia in X714. He had one son, 
named William Pepperell, born in 1696, 
who commanded the American forces which 
captured Louisburg from the French, after 
which he was made Lieutenant-General. 
He also had the honor of being the first 
native of New England to be knighted by 
the King of England. He also was a mem- 
ber of the bar and practiced law and was 
Governor and Chancellor of Massachusetts 
in 1756. His sister, Mary Pepperell, mar- 
ried Captain John Frost, 169 1- 1732, who 
was a captain in the fleet that went to Louis- 
burg under the command of Lieutenant- 
General Pepperell. 

Captain Frost was also a lawyer and in 
1724 was a member of the Council for the 



Province of New Hampshire. His son was 
George Frost, born 1720, died 1796. He 
was Chief Justice of the Court of Common 
Pleas of Stafford County, New Hampshire. 
He was also a delegate to the Continental 
Congress, 1776- 1779. His daughter, Martha 
Frost, married Henry Mellen, who was 
also a lawyer practicing in New Hampshire. 
His brother, Prentiss Mellen, was United 
States Senator from Massachusetts. When 
Maine was formed as a separate state in 
1820, he resigned from the Senate to be- 
come the First Chief Justice of Maine. 
Sargeant S. Prentiss, the American orator, 
was a first cousin of Henry Mellen. 

William Pepperell Mellen, son of Henry 
Mellen, born in 1806, died in 1864, removed 
to Mississippi in 1831. He was a lawyer 
and a member of the Legislature of Missis- 
sippi and established the first daily news- 
paper, "The Natchez Courier", in Missis- 
sippi, and was Grand Master of the Ma- 
sonic Lodge of that state. He married 
Sarah Lewis, daughter of Archibald Lewis, 
who was Presiding Justice of the Court of 
Common Pleas of Adams County, Missis- 
sippi. A brother of Archibald Lewis was 
Seth Lewis, who studied law in Tennessee 



BIOGRAPHICAL CYCLOPEDIA 



?t 



under Andrew Jackson, and was a member 
of the first legislature of Tennessee. In 
1800 he was appointed the first Chief Jus- 
tice of Mississippi by President John 
Adams and later served as United States 
Circuit Court Judge for Louisiana. 

Two sons of William Pepperell Mellen 
became lawyers. They were William F., 
(born 1836, died 1890), who had the de- 
gree of LL.D. conferred on him by the Uni- 
versity of Mississippi and was dean of the 
law department of Tulane University in 
New Orleans ; Thomas L., born 1847, died 
1909, a member of the Legislature of 
Mississippi in 1882 and Prosecutor of 
Adams County. Mary Peyton Mellen, the 
daughter of William Pepperell Mellen, born 
1845, died 1904, married Samuel A. Ma- 
son, born in Frostburg, Maryland, in 1833, 
and died in Natchez, Miss., February 18, 
1881. He was a commission merchant in 
Natchez and served four years in the 
Twelfth Mississippi Regiment, Confederate 
States Army. Two children survive this 
union, Charles M. Mason, the subject of 
this sketch, and Sarah E. Mason, who mar- 
ried Frederick L. Cobb of Newark. 

Charles Meeks Mason was graduated 
from Rutgers College, New Jersey, in 1897, 
with degree of A. B. In 1901 the degree 
of A. M. was conferred upon him for 
special educational work. Having deter- 
mined to follow the profession in which his 
ancestors had achieved such successes and 
were so highly honored, he entered the New 



York Law School from which he was grad- 
uated with honor in 1901 and had conferred 
upon him the degree of LL.B. During this 
time he also read law in the office of Lin- 
tott, Johnson & Capen of Newark. He was 
admitted to the bar of New York as an at- 
torney and counsellor in 1901 and to the 
bar of New Jersey in 1902 as an attorney, 
and as a counsellor in 1905. In politics he 
has been a consistent adherent of Demo- 
cratic principles, and in the office of Under- 
Sheriff, which he now holds, he has earned 
for himself a reputation as a man of firm- 
ness, possessed of executive ability of a 
high order, who has aided much in the sup- 
pression of vice. For six months, he was 
acting-Sheriff of the County while Sheriff 
Sommer was ill and absent from the State. 
Mr. Mason is one of the faculty of the 
New Jersey Law School ; and a member of 
the Rutgers Club, the Lawyers' Club, the 
Gottfried Krueger Association, the Frank- 
lin Lodge No. 10, Free and Accepted Ma- 
sons, Clinton Lodge No. 18, Independent 
Order Odd Fellows, Union Chapter, Royal 
Arch Masons, and the Beta Theta Pi college 
fraternity. He is also interested in the mi- 
litia of his state and is a member of the 
First Regiment, New Jersey National 
Guard. He was married in 1905, to Eva 
D. Bloomfield of Elizabeth, New Jersey, a 
relative of Joseph Bloomfield, Governor of 
New Jersey. They have two children, 
Charles Bloomfield Mason and William 
Pepperell Mason. 



LOUIS SCHLESINGER 

NEWARK 



LOUIS SCHLESINGER has done 
much in the development, upbuilding 
and substantial progress of Newark. The 
story of his life is inseparably interwoven 
with that of the modern city and the im- 
press of his strong individuality is incft'ace- 
ably stamped upon it. The growth and de- 



velopment of American cities has been al- 
most entirely due to the progressive enter- 
prise of its citizens. No citj' has advanced 
more rapidly or upon a more substantial 
basis than Newark, and Mr. Schlesinger's 
personality has been a force in this devel- 
opment, and a force in the right direction. 



^2 



BIOGRAPHICAL CYCLOPEDIA 



Born in Newark, December i6, 1865, son 
of Alexander and Fannie (Fleischer) 
Schlesinger, the entire life of Mr. Schlesin- 
ger has been passed in the city of his birth. 
After attending the Morton Street public 
school and the Newark high school, from 
which he passed in 1878, he entered upon 
a business career. On September 15, 1884, 
Mayor Joseph E. Haynes appointed him to 
a clerkship in the Newark aqueduct board, 
a position which he resigned in 1890 to 
engage in the real estate and insurance busi- 
ness with ex-Sheriff William H. Brown. 
This partnership terminated January i, 
1900, when Mr. Schlesinger engaged in 
business for himself. 

On May 8, 1904, through his instrumen- 
tality, the Union Building Company was 
organized. The formation of this company 
is probably the crowning achievement of 
Mr. Schlesinger's career. The company 
erected the Union Building, which except- 
ing the home of the Prudential Insurance 
Company, is the largest office edifice in 
New Jersey. The ground for this structure 
was broken September i, 1904. In Janu- 
ary, 1906, the building which cost more 
than a half million dollars was ready for 
occupancy, and in a short time public ap- 
preciation was manifested through appli- 
cations for offices by corporations, busi- 
ness interests and individuals of the high- 
est character. The erection of this building 
marked the beginning of an era of progress 
in the erection of large office structures of 
the modern type and the success of the 
enterprise has warranted the company in 
the erection of even a larger building, 
having twelve stories above ground and 
two below to occupy the site of the old Es- 
sex Lyceum on the east corner of Clinton 
and Beaver streets. This plot has a front- 
age of one hundred and seven feet 
six inches on Clinton street and one 
hundred and twenty feet on Beaver 
street. In character of construction 
and interior appointments the building 
will be second to none in the country. 

Mr. Schlesinger's genius for organization 



and his capacity for outlining and suc- 
cessfully managing large enterprises is 
probably best illustrated by his trans- 
formations of unimproved tracts into beau- 
tiful additions to the city. One of the most 
noteworthy instances of this has been the 
operation of the Lfnion Building Company, 
— of which Mr. Schlesinger is the secre- 
tary, treasurer, and managing agent, — with 
an extensive tract lying north of Clinton 
avenue and west of Seymour avenue. This 
tract was purchased June 30, 1905, at 
which time the land was no better than 
farm lots. In less than three years it has 
been changed to one of the finest residen- 
tial sections of the city; streets have been 
graded, curbed and paved in the most ap- 
proved style ; and gas, electricity and sewers 
have been carried into every nook and cor- 
ner of the property. Beautiful green lawns, 
sloping terraces, and young shade trees 
make the new streets ideally picturesque. 
LTnder Mr. Schlesinger's direction the 
buildings erected on the company's p'rop- 
ery have been substantially constructed and 
attractively and artistically finished. 

Mr. Schlesinger is also engaged in the 
fire insurance business, and is the repre- 
sentative in Newark of various old and sub- 
stantial insurance companies. It is need- 
less to state that in his entire business life 
he has been eminently successful. He is 
considered the best judge of real estate 
values in the city and in recognition of this 
quality the court of chancery has appointed 
him receiver of properties in litigation ; 
and his services as appraiser are in de- 
mand by financial institutions. 

Mr. Schlesinger has not permitted his 
large business enterprises to absorb all his 
time and attention ; he has been active in 
charitable work and is one of the leading 
spirits in the management of the Hebrew 
Orphan Asylum, and is chairman of its 
orphan committee. He is genial and com- 
panionable and has both the esteem and 
confidence of the entire community. 

He married, October 8, 1890, Sophie 



BIOGRAPHICAL CYCLOPEDIA 



73 



Levy, daughter of Joseph and Fanny Levy, 
and has two children, Alexander Schlesin- 
ger and Joel Schlesinger. He is still in the 
very prime of vigorous manhood. Through 
his own vmaided efforts he has, at the age 
of forty-three, advanced to the leading po- 
sition in his line of business in the city of 



Newark; and he has earned for himself 
the admiration of his fellow citizens who 
accord him unqualified praise for the genius 
that he has displayed in the handling of 
large real estate enterprises, and who honor 
him for his sterling integrity and charitable 
traits. 



JOHN W. HECK 

JERSEY CITY 



JOHN W. HECK, a member of the 
Hudson County bar, was born in Tren- 
ton, New Jersey, July 27, 1855. He is a 
son of Martin and Catherine Heck, and 
traces his ancestry to respected lineage. In 
1859, when he was but four years old, his 
parents removed from Trenton to Jersey 
City, where his father took charge of the 
oil works of I. & C. Moore, located at the 
foot of Morris street. The elder Heck died 
in 1865. The son received his education in 
the public and private schools of Jersey 
City, and on April i, 1867, entered the law 
office of Stephen Billings Ransom, with 
whom he later began the study of law. Sub- 
sequently, on September 28, 1874, he be- 
came a clerk and student at law in the of- 
fices of L. & A. Zabriskie, being admitted 
to the bar of New Jersey as an attorney at 
the November term of the Supreme Court 
in 1876. He continued with his preceptors 
after his admission and when the firm was 
dissolved, he remained with Lansing Za- 
briskie, the senior member, until 1884, in 
which year Mr. Zabriskie withdrew from 
practice. Mr. Heck then assumed charge 
of the business as Mr. Zabriskie's attorney, 
in which capacity upon Mr. Zabriskie's 
death on March 29, 1892, he was retained 
as the attorney for estates of which Mr. 
Zabriskie had been trustee, his practice 
since that time having been largely in that 
field. 

Mr. Heck was elected a member of the 
New Jersey Assembly from the Sixth 



Hudson District in 1884, and served in the 
session of 1885 with credit. During his 
term in the State Legislature, he introduced 
the then famous citizens' charter, which 
was, however, defeated by his Republican 
colleagues from Jersey City. He also in- 
troduced and secured the passage of the 
firemen's tenure of office act, removing the 
Jersey City fire department from politics, 
and reintroduced the bill providing for a 
bridge over the "Gap," on Washington 
street, which, as in former attempts to 
pass this measure, was defeated, owmg to 
the powerful influences brought to bear 
against it. In 1885 Mr. Heck was renomi- 
nated for member of Assembly but was de- 
feated by the Honorable R. S. Hudspeth. 

Two years later, in 1887, a committee of 
the Hudson County Bar Association, of 
which Mr. Heck was made a member, was 
appointed to prepare a bill to provide 
pro]jcr indices in the office of the Register 
of Deeds and in connection with Mr. Spen- 
cer W'eart, a fellow member of the bar, Mr. 
Heck secured the passage of the law pro- 
viding for the well-known and effective 
"block system." The work under this act 
was performed by the commission appoint- 
ed by Judge Manning M. Knapp, of which 
Mr. Heck was the clerk, and it was com- 
pleted in fourteen months. Hudson county 
now possesses the best set of indices to its 
land records that exist in the State. 

Mr. Heck was a charter member of the 
old Jersey City Athletic Club and served in 



74 



BIOGRAPHICAL CYCLOPEDIA 



various official capacities during the first 
six years of its existence, being its presi- 
dent in 1884. He is connected with the 
Bay View Cemetery Association as a trus- 
tee, secretary and treasurer, and his activity 
in that undertaking has done much to pro- 
mote its interests. As a citizen he is pubHc 
spirited, and he is always ready to co-op- 
erate in any movement that is for the com- 
mon welfare, or that tends to promote the 
material advancement of the community. 



He is esteemed and enjoys the general con- 
fidence as one of Jersey City's representa- 
tive and useful citizens, and his career has 
been that of a man who attained success by 
thoroughly deserving it. He is a member 
of the Emory Methodist Episcopal Church 
of Jersey City and on its official board. 

Mr. Heck married, in October, 1884, 
Lillian Benson, of Haverstraw, New York. 
To this union were born two children, 
namely, Edson Burr and Natalie. 



FRANK HASBROUCK EARLE 

NEWARK 



FRANK HASBROUCK EARLE, a dis- 
tinguished civil engineer, was born in 
New York City, May 27, 1852, a son of 
Thomas and Cornelia Hasbrouck Earle. 
His first American ancestor was Edward 
Earle, a native of England, who came to 
America and settled in Maryland in 1676. 
His wife was Hannah Baylis, and the line 
of descent is traced through their son Ed- 
ward, who married Elsie Vreeland; their 
son Marmaduke, who married Rebecca 
Manus ; their son Morris, who married 
Anna de la Montague (a descendant of the 
celebrated French emigrant Johannes de la 
Montague, and connected by blood and 
marriage with some of the most wealthy 
and aristocratic families of New York) ; 
their son Thomas, who married Mathilda 
Harrison; and their son Thomas (father 
of Frank), who was born in New York in 
1809, and married (i) Euphemia Demarest 
and (2) Cornelia Hasbrouck, daughter of 
Dr. Stephen Hasbrouck of New York. The 
last-named Thomas, by his first wife, had 
two children, Caroline M., who died in in- 
fancy, and Ralph Demarest, who is now 
living. By his second wife he had four 
children, Emma (wife of Daniel Van Win- 
kle, Jr.,) Frank Hasbrouck (the subject of 
this sketch), Ida Cornelia (wife of Willard 
C. Fisk), and Annie Euphemia, deceased. 



This Thomas Earle was a well known pion- 
eer, who lived in New York until about 
1 85 1, when he moved to Jersey City. He 
was vice-president of the Hudson County 
National Bank of Jersey City for many 
years, and vice-president and president of 
the Jersey City Gas Light Company for 
twenty-five years. 

Frank Hasbrouck Earle, received a thor- 
ough education, completing it at the Has- 
brouck Institute in Jersey City, from which 
he was graduated with high honors in 1868. 
His professional life commenced very 
early. At the age of sixteen he entered the 
ofiice of Bacot, Post and Camp, then the 
leading firm of engineers and surveyors in 
Hudson County, New Jersey, and remained 
with that firm as a student until the spring 
of 1872. He then commenced practice in 
his own name, and soon acquired an en- 
viable record for conscientious and careful 
work. Much of his early practice was m 
laying out and superintending the develop- 
ment of city and suburban real estate, and 
in partitioning large estates. In this work 
he laid out Seabright, Wyoming and other 
towns in the State, and divided the Gregory 
and Henderson, Hiram Gilbert, Opdyke, 
Kerrigan, Traphagen, and other estates. 
By this practice he became noted as an ac- 
complished judge of real estate values and 





Ttu^y.^^d^ 



BIOGRAPHICAL CYCLOPEDIA 



75 



possibilities, and his advice on these ques- 
tions was sought constantly until his death. 

In 1871 and 1872 he was engaged, for 
the State Riparian Commissioners, in the 
work of establishing by monuments the first 
lines for bulkheads and piers adopted by 
New Jersey. In 1881 he improved Green 
Pond, now known as Tackanassie Lake, at 
Elberon, deepened the lake, and built a 
dam, bulkheads, etc. In 1886 he formed 
a copartnership with Edlon W. Harrison, 
and the firm became identified with many 
of the most important engineering projects 
in the State. Until 1895, they were the ex- 
pert engineers for the State Railroad Tax 
Commission. In 1892 Mr. Harrison became 
chief engineer of the Hudson Boulevard, 
and for five or six years the firm's work 
covered the laying out, opening and build- 
ing of this road. 

The firm was practically constantly em- 
ployed as experts in matters of railroad and 
other condemnations, acting for all the 
great trunk lines centering in Hudson 
County or for the property owners. In- 
cluded in these were the celebrated cases 
of the West Line Grant, the New Jersey 
Junction Crossing, and all the railroad tax 
litigation between 1897 and the time of 
Mr. Earle's death. The firm was also en- 
gaged in the development of many indus- 
trial properties on the water front. In 1897 
and 1898 Mr. Earle, as chief engineer, de- 
signed and constructed the Ravine Road 
sewer, the main outfall sewer for an area 
of 500 acres with a population of 50,000 
people. The last important work with which 
he was intimately associated was the de- 
signing and preparation of specifications 
and letting of contracts for the great steel 
draw bridge of the Long Branch Railroad 
over the Raritan River between the Am- 
boys. 

While engaged in the active practice of 
his profession, the best work of Mr. Earle's 
life was probably as president of the Rari- 
tan River Railroad. This industrial road 
was promoted in 1888 by the firm and some 
associates with a view to developing the 



clay and brick industries of Middlesex 
County by giving adequate means of cheap 
transportation. In 1892 Mr. Earle and his 
associates were forced to take over the fi- 
nancial and practical management of the 
property. He was elected president and for 
fifteen years applied to the work his most 
faithful and conscientious care, with the 
result that by 1903, he had established the 
enterprise on a firm foundation, so at the 
time of his death it was a dividend paying 
property, and had probably doubled the 
population, industries, and value of the ter- 
ritory it served. 

In politics Mr. Earle was a stanch Re- 
publican, but never aspired to political hon- 
ors. He was active in church and social 
matters, being a member of the Roseville 
Presbyterian Church of Newark, and pres- 
ident of its board of trustees for thirteen 
years; a member of the Roseville Athletic 
Club of Newark; a life member of the New 
Jersey Historical Society, the Carteret Club 
of Jersey City, and the General Society of 
Mechanics and Tradesmen of New York 
City ; and a director of the Hudson County 
National Bank and a director and one of 
the incorporators of the New Jersey Title 
Guarantee and Trust Company and the Pa- 
vonia Trust Company, both of Jersey City. 
He was a liberal contributor to worthy 
charities; a careful, prudent and conserva- 
tive business man. Possessed of a gentle 
and agreeable personality, he won the re- 
gard and esteem of all with whom he came 
in contact. 

He married in Orange, N. J., December 
29, 1881, Jennie Elizabeth Baldwin, daugh- 
ter of John Baldwin of Newark, New Jer- 
sey, who traces her descent from John 
Baldwin of England, one of the first thirty- 
five settlers in Newark. Four sons were 
born of this union ; Frank Hasbrouck, Jr., 
who was associated with his father in en- 
gineering practice ; Harold Baldwin, a stu- 
dent at Princeton University; Louis de la 
Montague; and Donald. Mr. Earle died 
in Newark, New Jersey, November 7, 1907. 



76 



BIOGRAPHICAL CYCLOPEDIA 



THEODORE JOHNSON BADGLEY 

MONTCLAIR 



THEODORE JOHNSON BADGLEY, 
was born in Hampton, Carter County, 
Tennessee, September, i6, 1871. He is 
the second son of Alfred Stephen Badgley 
and Mary Jane Elizabeth Simerly, his 
mother being a lineal descendant of General 
Wade Hampton. The father is a practic- 
ing lawyer in New Jersey and served for 
many years as Town Attorney of Mont- 
clair. 

The Badgley family is of English origin. 
Anthony Badgley came to this country 
from England and settled in Flushing, 
Long Island, toward the end of the seven- 
teenth century. The destruction of all old 
town records of Flushing prevents the as- 
certainment of the exact date of his ar- 
rival, hut it is known that he had a planta- 
tion there in 1700. In i6()8 there was made 
"An exact list of all ye inhabitants' names 
within ye Towne of fflushing and Points, 
of Old and Young ffreeman and servants, 
white and blacke etc." In this list is found 
the following entry : "5 Anthody Badgley, 
Elizabeth his wife, Anthony; Georg, phebe ; 
I negroi." Under date of March 3, 1794, 
Anthony Badgley petitioned the authorities 
for a warrant to survey a lot in Flushing 
called "Hemp Lot," belonging to him, in 
order to end the encroachments of Thomas 
Hedger and others. Evidently he was at 
least in comfortable circumstances, for in 
1707 he was one of a company composed 
chiefly of wealthy men which purchased 
through its agent, Peter Sonmans, a large 
tract of land in New Jersey, for which 
it paid the Indians I200 in cash and in 
goods. This tract contained about 170,000 
acres called "New Britian," and lay about 
thirty-three miles northwest of Elizabeth- 
town. It had not been laid out and divided 
among its owners in 1751. The early name 
for this tract was "Markseta Colinnge." 
Among the other proprietors were Na- 
thaniel Bonnell, Richard Townley, William 



Nickoll, William Urquhart, Ebeneser Wil- 
son, Lancaster Symes and Conningsby 
Norbury. Badgley's share was one-four- 
teenth and that of Colonel Townley one- 
twenty-eighth. 

In July, 171 1, there was compiled "An 
account of each inhabitant of flushings, 
prowisions as ffolowet" — being the tax rate 
for the year. Anthony Badgley's share was 
twenty-three pounds of bacon, six bushels 
of wheat and one bushel of "Indian" 
(com). He was sergeant in Captain Jona- 
than Wright's company of militia in 1715 
and probably died within a few years, as no 
further mention of his name appears. The 
family name of his wife Elizabeth has not 
been discovered. Seven children were 
born to Anthony and Elizabeth Badgley, as 
follows: Anthony, born about 1690-95, 
married Phebe Haight, and died April 3, 
1732; George, born about 1693-96, married 
Mary Hatfield, and died about Septem- 
ber, 1759; Phebe, born about 1696-98, was 
married in Jamaica, September 15, 1715, to 
Peter Wilcocks, and removed to Essex 
County, New Jersey ; Sarah, born about 
1798-1800, was married about 1721-22 to 
Joseph Doty, of Essex County, New Jer- 
sey, who was born about 1696; James, of 
whom presently; John, whose wife's name 
was Euphemia and who died in 1759; and 
Elizabeth, who married Uriah Hedges, of 
Essex County, New Jersey. 

James Badgley, son of Anthony and 
Elizabeth Badgley, was born in Flushing, 
L. I., about 1700-05 and died in 1777. He 
removed to the borough of Elizabeth, New 
Jersey and there married Hannah, daugh- 
ter of Joseph Kelsey, of Rahway, New 
Jersey. Mr. Badgley owned considerable 
land in Turkey, now called New Provi- 
dence, and lived on the road leading from 
that place to Westfield. In his will, dated 
July 7, 1777, he describes himself as 
"James Badgley, of the borough of Eliza- 



BIOGRAPHICAL CYCLOPEDIA 



77 



beth, yeoman, being sick, etc." The will 
was probated November i8, 1777. He 
names in it his wife Hannah and five chil- 
dren. His sons James and Joseph had al- 
ready received their portions, so that Mr. 
Badgley divided his home plantation and 
other lands equally between Anthony and 
Robert, who were appointed executors. The 
remains of James Badgley were buried 
either in New Providence or in Westfield, 
but no headstone marks his grave. There 
were seven children born to James and 
Hannah (Kelsey) Badgley, as follows: 
James, whose wife's name was Sarah : a 
daughter who married Abraham Vreeland ; 
Elizabeth, married William Robinson ; 
Joseph, born about 1730, married Elizabeth 
Scudder, and died in 1785; Anthony, of 
whom presently; Marcy, married Mr. 
Garles, and Robert, married Rachel Vree- 
land. 

Anthony Badgley, son of James and 
Hannah (Kelsey) Badgley, was born about 
1733 and died June 30, 1803. He was mar- 
ried about 175 — to Anne, daughter of Jon- 
athan Woodruff and sister of Aaron 
Woodruff, one of the jurors at the trial of 
James Morgan, slayer of the Reverend 
James Caldwell, who was famous in his 
generation as the "Fighting Parson." The 
Badgleys had their home on what is 
now Mountain avenue, in Westfield Town- 
ship. 

In 1785-86 there was a great religious 
revival in Westfield and in the latter year, 
of the thirty-four who joined the church, 
eleven were Badgleys, including Anthony, 
his wife, and several of their children, of 
whom there were eight, as follows : Aaron, 
born about 1756, died January 11, 1761 ; 
Jonathan, of whom presently; Anthony, 
born 1762, married Abigail Hedges, and 
died October 4, 1842; Noah, baptized Feb- 
ruary 13, 1765, joined the Westfield Church 
in 1786. was one of the founders of Cin- 
cinnati in 1788, and is said to have been a 
surveyor and to have been drowned in the 
West, unmarried ; Samuel, baptized April 
5, 1767, married Mary Frazee; Mary, bap- 



tized January 28, 1770, married February 
28, 1792, to William Maxwell and went to 
Ohio; Jane, baptized February 2, 1772, 
married January 28, 1790, to Barnabas 
Hole, and removed to the vicinity of Hamil- 
ton, Ohio, where her husband died in 
1820; and Anna, baptized September 11. 
1775, married June 19, 1796, to Maxwell 
Frazee. 

Jonathan Badgley, son of Anthony and 
Anne (Woodruff) Badgley, was born in 
Essex County, New Jer.sey, near Westfield, 
July II, 1759, and died May 2, 1834. He 
was twice married (i) to Lydia Scudder, 
June 9, 1782; and (2) to Hannah Sear- 
ing, September 8, 1821. He had seven chil- 
dren by his first wife and thirteen by the 
second. Altogether, he served twenty-six 
months as a private in the Revolutionan,' 
Army under thirteen different captains. He 
fought in the battle of Connecticut Farms 
and probably in others. After his death, 
his widow married July 11, 1837, Ebenezer 
Littell, who died May 2, 1852. Mr. and 
Mrs. Badgley lived in what is now New 
Providence Township, on the first moun- 
tain between Baltusrol Mountain and Sum- 
mit, on the farm latterly owned by Wesley 
Faitoute. The children by the first mar- 
riage were: Stephen, of whom presentlv ; 
Abijah. baptized August, T787. married 
Elizabeth Wilcox; Noah, died unmarried 
about December 17. 1814; John Squier. 
married Hannah Sturges : ]\Tary, married 
David C. Hand ; Nancy, married Thomas 
Seward and died quite young; and Jane, 
married (i) March 4. 1823. to Samuel Ball 
and (2) to Mr. Travers. Of the issue by 
Jonathan Badgley's second marriage, the 
six youngest children were Aaron, Nancy, 
Jacob, who died unmarried, Jonathan, 
Noah and Sarah, who died unmarried. 

Stephen Badgley. son of Jonathan and 
Lydia (Scudder) Badgley, was born Janu- 
ary 13, 1785, in what is now New Provi- 
dence Township and died February 22, 
T872, near Green Village, New Jersey, 
where he lived with his family. He was 
married October 26, 1806, to Catherine 



78 



BIOGRAPHICAL CYCLOPEDIA 



Denman, daughter of John Denman. She 
was bom April i, 1789, and died April 9, 
1872. Their eight children were: Oliver, 
born about 1807, married Jane Johnson, and 
died October i, 1865, his wife being born 
January i, 1814, and dying February 17, 
1900; Harriet, born May 14, 1808, married 
Phineas Kinsey, 1 800- 1 891, and died De- 
cember 24, 1891 ; Alfred, of whom present- 
ly ; Catherine, who married George Cramer 
late in life as his second wife; Sarah Ann, 
living at Morristown, unmarried, in 1902 ; 
Mary H., born February 2, 1824, married 
the Reverend John Dean, and died March 
31, 1853; Charlotte, born June 30, 1825, 
married the Reverend John Dean as his 
second wife, and died October 5, 1901 ; and 
Theodore, born January 9, 1834, married 
Mary Lindsey, who was born January 9, 
1834. 

Alfred Badgley, son of Stephen and 
Catherine (Denman) Badgley, was mar- 
ried May 7, 1845, by the Reverend Oliver 
Badgley, to Sarah (Moore) Coddington, 
relict of Benjamin Coddington. He was 
afterward married (2) to Mary King. By 
the first marriage, he had a daughter, Cath- 
erine Amelia, who died in infancy, and a 
son, Stephen Alfred, who was afterward 
known as Alfred Stephen Badgley. The 
latter, as already noted, was married to 
Mary Jane Elizabeth Simerly, eldest daugh- 
ter of Elijah and Mary E. Simerly, Sep- 
tember 30, 1869, and had issue as follows: 
Alfred E., Theodore Johnson, Mary C, 
who died in April, 1898, and Oliver K. 
Mr. Badgley was born on a farm in Som- 
erset County, New Jersey, in 1849, ^^'^ '^^ 
spent a greater portion of his youth in that 
and Morris counties, where he attended the 
common schools. Later he pursued his 
studies in Pennington Seminary, where he 
was graduated in 1869. He then located in 
Tennessee, where he read law and was ad- 
mitted to the bar in 1873. After engaging 
in practice for a time, he entered the Na- 
tional University in the District of Colum- 
bia, from which he was graduated with the 
degree of bachelor of laws in 1884. Re- 



turning to Tennessee, he was appointed 
special examiner of the United States Pen- 
sion Bureau, with headquarters in Bakers- 
ville, N. C. He held that office for two 
years and upon his retirement established 
himself in the practice of his profession 
in Tennessee, remaining there until 1887, 
when he removed to New Jersey and was 
admitted to the bar of that State as an at- 
torney. In 1890, at the November term of 
court in Trenton, he was licensed to prac- 
tice as a counselor. 

Locating in Montclair, he speedily at- 
tained recognition as one of the really able 
representatives of his profession in that lo- 
cality. In 1892 he was made adviser and 
Town Attorney for the town of Montclair, 
and held this position for about fourteen 
years. He is a Republican in politics, a 
member of Montclair Lodge No. 144, Free 
and Accepted Masons, in which he is Past 
Master, and he holds membership in the 
Methodist Episcopal Church, in which he is 
serving as a member of the official board. 
He was also a member of the supreme com- 
mittee on laws and appeals of the Im- 
proved Order of Heptasophs. 

The son, Theodore Johnson Badgley, re- 
ceived his preliminary education in the pub- 
lic schools of Maryland, North Carolina 
and Tennessee. He subsequently attended 
the L^niversity of Tennessee in Knoxville, 
that State. He began his career as a young 
man in the lumber business. He came to 
New Jersey in March, 1888, and has ever 
since made his home in Montclair. Taking 
up the study of law in 1897 in his father's 
office, he was admitted to the bar of the 
State of New Jersey as an attorney at the 
November term, 1899, and as counselor-at- 
law at the November term, 1902. He was 
admitted to practice before the Supreme 
Court of the United States in January, 
1908, and he is now engaged in the practice 
of his profession in Montclair and in the 
city of Newark, where he has a large and 
influential clientele. He is modest in re- 
ferring to his own attainments and success, 
but the fact remains that he is esteemed as 



BIOGRAPHICAL CYCLOPEDIA 



79 



a lawyer who can be relied upon by his 
clients for square and honest treatment, 
and who endeavors at all times to serve 
their interests, sparing no pains to this end. 
Mr. Pjadgley is a Republican in his politi- 
cal principles and affiliations. He is a 
member of the Montclair Republican Gen- 
eral Committee and of the Second Ward 
Republican Club, of that place. He holds 
membership in the Montclair Club, the 
Montclair Gun Club, of which he is one of 
the directors, and Montclair Lodge No. 
891, Benevolent and Protective Order of 
Elks, of which he is at present the Es- 
teemed Leading Knight. He also holds 
membership in Montclair Council No. 421, 
Royal Arcanum, of which he is a past re- 



gent, and in Montclair Lodge No. 144, Free 
and Accepted Masons, of which he served 
as Master during 1909. He ranks high in 
the latter order, being a thirty-second de- 
gree mason and a member of the New Jer- 
sey Consistory. He is a Mystic Shriner 
and a member of Salaam Temple, of New- 
ark, New Jersey. In the matter of re- 
ligious faith, he is a member of the First 
Methodist Episcopal Church, of Montclair. 
He is one of the representative citizens of 
Montclair and foremost in its affairs. Mr. 
Badgley married, January 22, 1908, at 
Holmesburg, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, 
Emma Edith Dutton, daughter of James 
B. and Melissa M. Dutton, of that 
place. 



HENRY WILLIAM EGNER, JR. 

NEWARK 



HENRY WILLIAM EGNER, Jr., 
widely recognized as one of the ablest 
and most successful of the younger mem- 
bers of the New Jersey bar, was born in 
Orange, in lliat State, February 3, 1874. 
He is the son of Henry William Egner, Sr., 
and Emily S. Nasher, and the history of his 
family is referred to in the biography of 
his father, which apjiears elsewhere in this 
volume. Mr. Egner received his rudimen- 
tary education in the public schools of his 
native city and was graduated from the 
Newark High School. He afterward en- 
tered Columbia University, from which in- 
stitution he was graduated in the class of 
1895 with the degree of bachelor of arts. 
Having decided upon the profession of 
law, he studied in the Columbia Law 
Scliool, from which he was graduated in 
1898 with the degree of bachelor of laws. 
In the meantime he was a student in the 
law office of Judge Henry, in Newark, and 
he was admitted to the bar of New Jersey 
as an attorney in November, 1898, and as a 
counselor in February, 1902. Establishing 



himself in general practice immediately af- 
ter his admission he was not long in gain- 
ing both repute and support. 

Mr. Egner's abilities are of a high order 
and his knowledge of law is profound and 
accurate. He is a safe adviser and he acts 
as general counsel for some of the leading 
merchants and most prominent firms and 
corporations in Newark and Eastern New 
Jersey. He has been very successfully 
identified with considerable litigation of 
more than usual importance, and he is 
noted for the care with which he guards 
the best interests of his clients. None of 
the younger representatives of the New Jer- 
sey bar possesses a higher professional 
standing. He has offices in the Niagara 
Hmlding. 185 Market street, Newark. 

In politics Mr. Egner is a Democrat but 
while he has been active at times in the ad- 
vocacy of his party's cause, he has never 
sought or desired public preferment. He 
takes a keen interest in public affairs and 
is public spirited to a noteworthy degree. 
He is as representative as a citizen as he is 



8o 



BIOGRAPHICAL CYCLOPEDIA 



professionally, and his standing in Newark 
is well assured as that of a man possessing 
repute, ability, integrity, enterprise, and all 
those qualifications most to be desired in 
one occupying his position. He has inher- 
ited from his father, Henry W. Egner, Sr., 
many of the latter's sterling traits and char- 
acteristics, and in his own career has proved 
himself the worthy son of an honored sire. 
He is a conspicuous figure in Masonic 
circles in Essex County, being a member of 
Kane Lodge No. 55, Free and Accepted 
Masons, Union Chapter No. 7, Kane Coun- 



cil No. 5, Damascus Commandery No. 5, 
the Ancient Accepted Scottish Rite, Valley 
of New Jersey, Salaam Temple, of the 
Mystic Shrine, and the Tall Cedars of Leb- 
anon. He is also prominent and popular 
in the Ancient Order of Odd Fellows, hold- 
ing membership in Howard Lodge No. 7 
and Mount Ararat Encampment No. 3. He 
belongs, too, to the Phi Delta Theta fra- 
ternity, to the Board of Trade of Newark, 
the Lawyers' Club of that city, the Jeffer- 
son Club, and the Concordia Building Loan 
Association of Newark. 



HUGH SMITH 

NEWARK 



HUGH SMITH, who attained even na- 
tional distinction as one of the fore- 
most and most successful manufacturers of 
patent and enamelled leather in the United 
States, was a native of County Cavan, Ire- 
land, where he was born February 2, 1840. 
He was the son of James Smith, of Collon, 
County Louth, Ireland, his father being a 
prominent linen manufacturer there. The 
son traced his descent on both paternal and 
maternal sides from old and respected Irish 
ancestral stock and inherited to a marked 
degree the sturdy characteristics and ster- 
ling moral worth of his forebears. 

Beginning his education in the schools of 
his native country, Mr. Smith came to the 
United States at fourteen years of age with 
his mother and brother, Charles Smith, his 
father having previously died. Locating in 
Newark, New Jersey, he completed his 
schooling in the public schools of that city 
and became an apprentice currier and tanner 
in the leather factory of Sherman & Wright, 
a calling for which he displayed exceptional 
aptitude from the very beginning and in 
which he acquired high skill as a practical 
workman. In 1862 he embarked in the 
leather manufacturing on his own account 
in Newark, founding the business that sub- 



sequently achieved leadership in the trade 
under the style of the Hugh Smith Com- 
pany. The venture was successful from 
the outset, the practical knowledge and 
skilled experience of Mr. Smith himself 
proving potent factors in the development 
and growth of the enterprise. His rare ca- 
pacity and unerring judgment as a busi- 
ness man also proved of value in gaining 
for the vmdertaking the important place 
that it finally attained in its own field of 
endeavor. Under his direction the plant 
gradually widened in its scope, prestige and 
influence until it was justly regarded as one 
of the representative and largest industries 
of its class in this country. In 1889 the 
business became an incorporation, Mr. 
Smith taking his two sons, James T. and 
Hugh E. Smith, into the establishment. 

Mr. Smith was a Democrat in his politi- 
cal principles and he served with credit for 
three years as a member of the Newark 
Board of Health. A Roman Catholic in his 
religious faith, he held the office of Vice- 
President of the St. Vincent de Paul So- 
ciety, connected with St. Patrick's Cathe- 
dral, Newark, and was one of the charter 
members of the Young Men's Catholic As- 
sociation, of that city. He was a promin- 





H^t^ 




"ZY. 



BIOGRAPHICAL CYCLOPEDIA 



8i 



ent and influential member of the Newark 
Board of Trade, the Essex County Country 
Gub, and the Essex Qub. 

His charities were many and he delighted 
in doing good. A public-spirited citizen, he 
was at all times ready to take his part in 
any movement that tended to advance the 
material interests of the community in 
which he lived, wherein he was held in 
high esteem by every one. He was of rigid 
devotion to rugged principles of integrity, 
both in business and socially, and was al- 
ways earnest and serious in whatever he 
undertook, mastering every task to which 
he turned his attention. He lived solely for 
his family and his friends, and he never 
tired in their behalf. He had the satisfac- 
tion of seeing his sons grow up in business, 
under his personal guidance, and he in- 
stilled into their minds and methods the 
same honorable qualities that had proved 
so potential in the steady growth of the 
great industry established by him and 
which, at the time of his death, gave em- 
ployment to a force of more than three 
hundred skilled hands. The plant stands 
to-day as an enduring memorial to his en- 
ergy and progressiveness, his honest zeal 
and high ability. One of the Newark news- 
papers, in paying tribute to his memory on 
the occasion of his demise, said that "mod- 
est in his life and devoted to his ideals, he 



sought nothing better than the esteem of 
his fellow men and the welfare of the city 
he loved." Mr. Smith was married in 1862, 
the same year that he started in business, 
to Mary McCabe. Mrs. Smith died in 1882, 
leaving seven children, three sons and four 
daughters. Of these there are now living, 
James T., Hugh E., Anna, Henrietta L., 
and Charles T. 

Mr. Smith died at his home in Newark, 
from heart disease, after a brief illness, 
February 4, 1907, and in his death that 
city lost one of its leading and most use- 
ful citizens, while the leather manufactur- 
ing industry of the United States sustain- 
ed the loss of one who had, in his own ca- 
reer and operations, contributed greatly to 
the improvement and development of the 
business. His demise was regarded by all 
who knew him in the light of a common 
grief that all might fitly share, it being 
said of him in the public press at the time 
that he was worthy of lasting remem- 
brance as one of the principal architects 
of the industrial prosperity of the city in 
which he lived and labored, being one of 
the founders of the business conditions 
existent there at the present day, his en- 
terprise and co-operation in all that was 
deserving, proving no minor factor in what 
was achieved. 



WILLIAM SCHEERER 

NEWARK 



THE history of a State as well as that 
of a Nation is chiefly a chronicle of the 
lives and deeds of those who have con- 
ferred honor and dignity upon society, 
whether in the broad sphere of public la- 
bors or the more circumscribed, but not 
less worthy and valuable, of individual ac- 
tivity through which the general good is 
ever promoted. The subject of this sketch, 
whose prominent position in financial and 



business affairs demand for him distinctive 
recognition in the history of New Jersey, 
has for many years been a prominent fac- 
for in the development of the industries of 
the city of Newark. 

William Scheerer was born in Newark, 
New Jersey, October 24, 1856, and re- 
ceived his education in the public and high 
schools of his native city. After leaving 
school, he obtained business employment in 



82 



BIOGRAPHICAL CYCLOPEDIA 



Newark, and at once displayed those ster- 
ling qualities which have enabled him to 
advance to the high position he now oc- 
cupies in the business community. He is 
President of the Union National Bank ; a 
director of the Fidelity Trust Company, 
and Vice-President of the Newark Consoli- 
dated Gas Company ; and one of the sink- 
ing fund commissioners of Essex County. 
He is a member of the Essex Club and the 
Essex County Country Club. 

Mr. Scheerer has advanced to the 



various positions which he occupies sole- 
ly through his own ability. He has 
always displayed business talents of a 
high order, and is considered one of the 
ablest financiers of the State. He enjoys 
the confidence and respect of all who know 
him, and is honored for his great integrity 
and scrupulous fidelity in the performance 
of duty. He married Louise Durand, of 
Lake Forest, Illinois, and has four chil- 
dren ; viz : Lois Durand, Paul Renner, Wil- 
liam, Jr., and Joseph B. 



WILLIAM F. ALLEN 

SOUTH ORANGE 



WILLIAM F. ALLEN, prominent in 
American railway circles as one of 
the most representative men allied with 
those important interests, was born in Bor- 
dentown, New Jersey, October 9, 1846. He 
was a son of Colonel Joseph Warren Allen 
and Sarah Burns Norcross, and traces his 
descent from old and honored ancestral 
stock on both sides. The Aliens are of an 
old Pennsylvania family that settled in that 
State as early as 1681. Through his mother, 
who was born in Bordentown, April 5, 
1815, and died March 30, 1882, he comes 
from old New Jersey lineage. 

Colonel Joseph Warren Allen, father of 
our subject, was a distinguished citizen of 
New Jersey, who, in his day, was active 
and influential in the political, military and 
railroad aflfairs of his State. He was born 
near Bristol, Pa., July 22, 181 1. He was 
a civil engineer and attained high rank in 
that profession. He began as a rodman 
during the construction of the old Delaware 
Division Canal and was afterward engaged 
on the construction of the Camden and 
Amboy Railway at Bordentown, subse- 
quently being identified with the building of 
the Grand Gulf and Port Gibson Railroad 
in Mississippi, the Baltimore and Ohio 
Railroad in Virginia, the Paterson and 



Ramapo, and the Flushing (Long Island) 
railroads, as well as on numerous other 
public works, including the Dundee Water 
Power and Land Improvement Company's 
plant in Passaic, New Jersey, and the oper- 
ations of the Hoboken Land and Improve- 
ment Company. The completion of the 
Bergen tunnel, now used by the Erie Rail- 
road, was entrusted to his charge as chief 
engineer. At one time he was a power in 
the politics of his State. He was twice 
elected to represent Burlington County in 
the State Senate and was the acknowledged 
leader of the Whigs in that body. He was 
frequently mentioned in connection with 
the high offices of Governor and United 
States Senator, and had he chosen to push 
his ambitions in the political arena he 
would have unquestionably won eminent 
preferment. The esteem in which he was 
held by the leading men of all parties was 
evinced by the action of the state Legisla- 
ture at the time of his death, when his body 
was laid in state at the State House in 
Trenton and all expenses attendant upon 
the return of his remains from Hatteras, 
where he died, and of the military funeral 
which followed, were borne by the state 
government. 

Colonel Allen was appointed Deputy 



BIOGRAPHICAL CYCLOPEDIA 



83 



Quartermaster General of New Jersey 
with the rank of Lieutenant-Colonel by 
Governor Charles Stratton, a position of 
honor but without duties until Fort Sum- 
ter was fired upon. From that time his 
best energies were devoted to the interests 
of his country. He rendered able and ef- 
ficient service as an aide of Governor Ol- 
den in equipping the three months men and 
all the regiments of three years men en- 
listed previous to the formation of the 
Ninth Regiment. The movement which 
culminated in the organization of the last 
mentioned command was the outcome of an 
application made to Governor Olden to re- 
cruit a company for the regiment known as 
"Berdan's Sharp Shooters." The Governor 
consulted Colonel Allen as to the practic- 
ability of raising such a company and it 
was the Colonel's opinion that a regiment 
of riflemen could be readily enlisted. Tlie 
Governor immediately offered to obtain au- 
thority to recruit such a regiment, provided 
Colonel Allen would take command, to 
which the latter promptly agreed. The 
project was successfully carried out. The 
regiment originally consisted of twelve 
companies of one hundred men each, con- 
forming with the organization recently 
adopted in the armies of the United States, 
and the sword carried by Colonel Allen was 
a gift from Governor Olden as a token of 
his personal regard and esteem. 

Colonel Allen was drowned off Hatteras 
Inlet, January 15, 1862, while on the "Burn- 
side Expedition." A noteworthy evidence 
of the enduring nature of the impression 
that he made upon the regiment was pre- 
sented two years later, in 1864, when an 
imposing monument was erected over his 
grave in Christ Church yard in Borden- 
town by the surviving officers and men of 
the command. The memorial is fifteen feet 
and six inches in height, the base being of 
Penn.sylvania marble and the shaft of white 
Italian marble. There are appropriate 
carvings in relief of flags, muskets, shield 
and Masonic emblems, with crossed swords 



and an ivy and oak wreath. The inscrip- 
tions are as follows : 

"Joseph W. Allen, Colonel Ninth Regi- 
ment New Jersey Volunteers, drowned at 
Hatteras, North Carolina, January fif- 
teenth, 1862, in the fifty-first year of his 
age." 

"This monument is erected by the offi- 
cers and men of the Ninth Regiment. Nerv 
Jersey \'olunteers, as a tribute of grateful 
respect to the memory of their first com- 
mander, who, while faithfully serving his 
country in the darkest hour of her peril, 
even to the sacrifice of his life, endeared 
himself to the hearts of his whole com- 
mand." 

Colonel Allen has been described by a 
biographer as "an exemplary citizen, a self- 
sacrificing patriot, a devoted husband and a 
loving father. Of fine physical proportions 
and manly bearing, his personal characteris- 
tics secured the confidence and respect of 
all who knew him." He was married No- 
vember 27, 1833, to Sarah Burns Norcross, 
by whom he had six children, Bethea B. 
Allen (Young), William Norcross, Joseph 
W., Jr., William F. and Edwin S. Allen. 

William F. Allen was educated at the 
Model School in Bordentown, New Jersey, 
and the Protestant Episcopal Academy of 
Philadephia, Pennsylvania. He received 
the honorary degree of master of science 
from Princeton University in 1906. He be- 
caine interested in military affairs at the 
outbreak of the Civil War and was com- 
missioned by Governor Charles S. Olden as 
the first lieutenant of Company C, Second 
Regiment, Burlington Brigade of the New 
Jersey Uniformed Militia on June 26, 1861, 
before he was fifteen years of age because 
of his proficiency as a drill master. On ac- 
count of the death of his father, he left 
school when only sixteen years of age and 
in ^Tay, 1862, he began work as a rod- 
man on the engineering corps of the Cam- 
den and Amboy Railway. In 1863 he be- 
came assistant engineer on the survey and 
construction of a branch from Jamcsburgh 
to Monmouth Junction, New Jersey. Dur- 
ing 1864-65, he was on the survey and con- 



84 



BIOGRAPHICAL CYCLOPEDIA 



struction of the Long Branch and Sea 
Shore Railroad, and in June, 1866, he had 
charge of the party on the survey and con- 
struction of the Pemberton and Hightstown 
Railroad, subsequently being assistant en- 
gineer on the survey and construction of 
the Camden and Burlington Counties Rail- 
road. From February, 1868, to October, 
1872, he was resident engineer in charge of 
maintenance of way of the West Jersey 
Railroad. He also had charge of the track 
of the Cape May and Millville and Salem 
Railways. In 1870 he completed the 
Swedesboro Railroad and took charge of 
its tracks. He was chief engineer on the 
first survey of the Woodstown and Swedes- 
boro Railroad. He surveyed and laid out 
the town site of Wenonah, New Jersey, 
making a survey there for water power, 
lie made a survey for a branch from the 
West Jersey Railroad to May's Landing, 
New Jersey, and made surveys for and 
rebuilt three miles of heavy work on the 
main line. 

In October, 1872, Mr. Allen was ap- 
pointed assistant editor of the "Official 
Railway Guide," and in June, 1873, he was 
appointed editor, and business manager of 
its publishers, The National Railway Pub- 
lication Company. 

In April, 1875, he was elected secretary 
of the General Time Convention and in 
October, 1877, was elected secretary of the 
Southern Railway Time Convention. These 
were united in 1886 and he was elected sec- 
retary of the organization, the name of 
which was changed in 1891 to that of The 
American Railway Association. The sys- 
tem of standard time now in use in this 
country in the practicable shape in which it 
was adopted in November, 1883, was de- 
vised by and proposed to the railroad com- 
panies by Mr. Allen. He was appointed a 
committee of one on the subject by the 
General Time Convention in October, 1881, 
and to him was assigned the duty of secur- 
ing its adoption. His first report was made 
in April, 1883, and his final re- 
port was presented in April, 1884. 



The officfal history of his services 
in this connection is recorded in the 
published "Proceedings of the Ameri- 
can Railway Association," covering, with its 
"Supplement," the period from 1872 to 
1893, inclusive. This system of standard 
time, based upon Greenwich Meridian time, 
has since been adopted on the continent of 
Europe and is now in use in Holland, Bel- 
gium, Spain, Sweden, Denmark, Germany, 
Switzerland, Austro-Hungary, Italy, Bul- 
garia, Roumania and Turkey. It is also in 
use in Japan, Australia, Peru and the Ar- 
gentine Republic. On the suggestion of 
Mr. Allen, it was introduced in 1899 by the 
LTnited States government in Puerto Rico 
and the Phillippine Islands, and for mili- 
tary purposes in Cuba. 

Mr. Allen was appointed by President 
Arthur one of five delegates, on the part of 
the United States, to the International 
Meridian Conference held in Washington 
in October, 1884. The other American 
delegates were Rear Admiral C. R. P. Rod- 
gers ; Commander and afterward Rear Ad- 
miral W. T. Sampson ; Professor Cleve- 
land Abbe and L. M. Rutherford. At this 
conference, which was attended by the dele- 
gates of twenty-five nations, the meridian 
of Greenwich was adopted as the Interna- 
tional Prime Meridian and Standard of 
Time Reckoning. In 1895 ^'^^- Allen was 
one of the delegates of the American Rail- 
way Association to the fifth session of the 
International Railway Congress held in 
London, England, in June and July of that 
year. He was a delegate of the United 
States Government and also of the Ameri- 
can Railway Association to the sixth session 
of the International Railway Congress held 
in Paris, France, in September, 1900. At 
the seventh session, held in Washington, 
District of Columbia, in May, 1905, he was 
again a delegate and was chosen as associate 
secretary of the Congress. He was also 
secretary of the American Section of the 
Congress and as such had charge of all the 
local arrangements for the session and for 
the reception of the distinguished delegates. 



BIOGRAPHICAL CYCLOPEDIA 



85 



He has been appointed as a reporter or 
contributor to the eighth session to be held 
in Berne, Switzerland, in 19 10. 

Mr. Allen is president of the Knicker- 
bocker Guide Company, treasurer of the 
American Railway Supply Company, sec- 
retary and treasurer of the American Rail- 
way Association, vice-president of the Rail- 
way Equipment and Publication Company, 
and vice-president of the New York Trans- 
fer Company. He is also connected with 
the American Railway Guide Company, the 
Gamewell Fire Alarm Telegraph Company, 
the Manhattan Fire Alarm Company, and 
other corporations. lie is a member of the 
American Metrological Society, the Amer- 
ican Society of Civil Engineers, the Ameri- 
can Academy of Political and Social Sci- 
ence, the American Statistical Association, 
the American Geographical Society, the 
National Geographic Society, the New Jer- 
sey Historical Society, the American 
Economic Association, the American Asso- 
ciation for the .Advancement of Science, 
the American Forestry Association, the 
Washington Academy of Science, the Navy 
League of the United States, the Municipal 
Art Society of New York, and is an honor- 
ary member of "Die K. K. Geographesche 
Gesellschaft" of Vienna, Austria. He is 
also a member of the Military Order of the 
Loyal Legion, a charter member and Past 
Master of the .American Railway Guild, 
and holds membership in the Lawyers, 
Railroad, Transportation, Traffic, Engi- 
neers and Underwriters Gubs, of New 
York, the Union League Club, of Qiicago, 



and the Transportation Club of Buffalo. 
He is a member and former president of 
the South Orange Field Qub, president of 
the Meadow Land Society of South 
Orange, a member and former counsellor 
of the New England Society of Orange, 
and a member and former president of the 
Republican Club of South Orange. He is 
a member, also, of the Republican Club of 
East Orange. He is a member and Senior 
Warden of the Protestant Episcopal 
Church of the Holy Communion, and a 
member of Century Lodge, Free and .Ac- 
cepted Masons. 

Mr. Allen has been quite prominent and 
active in the local affairs of South Orange, 
where he is regarded as a public spirited 
citizen. He has served one term as a mem- 
ber of the Board of .Assessment and one 
term as a member of the Board of Trustees 
of the Village. He was a delegate of the 
Eighth Congressional District of New Jer- 
sey to the National Republican Convention 
held in Chicago in June, 1908. In 1906 he 
was decorated by the Belgium Government 
as a Chevalier of the Order of Leopold. 

Mr. Allen married Caroline Perry Yorke, 
a native of Salem, New Jersey, and the 
daughter of the Honorable Thomas Jones 
and Margaret Johnson (Sinnickson) 
Yorke, of that place. To this marriage 
have been born the following children: 
Yorke, Frederick Warren, Eugene Yorke, 
born in Camden, New Jersey, and John 
Sinnickson, born in South Orange, New 
Jersey. 



BENJAMIN KING 



RAHWAY 



BENJAMIN KING was born in Gil- 
lingham, Kent County, England, Au- 
gust 29, 1856. He was educated in the 
public schools of his native county and in 
the Naval School at Greenwich, England, 



which he entered in 1867, taking the com- 
plete course which required about four 
years' time. Shortly thereafter he came to 
the United States and located in Brooklyn, 
New York, where he took the full business 



86 



BIOGRAPHICAL CYCLOPEDIA 



course in the Bryant and Stratton Business 
College. After fitting himself there with 
the rudimentary knowledge of business de- 
tails, he engaged as bookkeeper with his 
uncle, William S. Taylor, manufacturer of 
skirts. Two years later he moved to Rah- 
way, New Jersey, and became established 
with the firm of Taylor and Bloodgood, 
manufacturers of felt. This move was 
made with a desire to acquire a full knowl- 
edge of the felt manufacturing business. 
He was energetic, mastering the intricacies 
of that manufacturing line and was pro- 
moted, step by step, until he reached the 
position of superintendent. The business 
became incorporated under the name of 
the American Felt Company, and branches 
were established in several states, includ- 
ing New York, Connecticut and Massa- 
chusetts. 

In 1896 Mr. King became a member of 
the Board of Freeholders of Union Coun- 
ty. In this body he displayed the same 
energy and progressiveness that made him 
successful in his business enterprise. Ten 
years later, in 1906, he resigned his posi- 
tion as superintendent of the American 
Felt Company and was elected director of 
the Board of Freeholders of the county, a 
position which he still holds. 

Mr. King is a member of the Episcopal 
Church. He is deeply interested in the 



Masonic Order, is a member of Lafayette 
lodge No. 27 Free and Accepted Masons, 
of Lafayette Chapter No. 28, Royal Arch 
Masons, and St. John's Commanderv. No. 
9 of Elizabeth, and is a thirty-second degree 
Mason of the Scottish Rite Order and a 
member of Salaam Temple, of the Nobles 
of Mystic Shrine. He is also a member of 
Carteret Council of the Royal Arcanum of 
Rahway. He enlisted in the National 
Guard of New Jersey in 1876 as a private 
in Company F, Third Regiment and dur- 
ing a period of twenty-one years was pro- 
moted by regular gradation until he attained 
the rank of Major. He is a charter mem- 
ber of the New Jersey Rifle Association, 
and a life member of the National Rifle 
Association. He has also deep interest in 
military affairs. He retired from the Na- 
tional Guard in 1898, but continues still to 
take an active interest in the Rifle Asso- 
ciation. 

He is the treasurer of the Colonea Coun- 
try Qub of Rahway, a member of the New 
York and New Jersey Automobile Club 
and of the Associated Automobile Clubs of 
America. 

On April 28, 1886, Mr. King married 
Miss Dora Schumacher, daughter of Fred- 
erick Schumacher of Rahway, New Jersey. 
Mr. and Mrs. King are the parents of two 
children : Emma and Benjamin, Jr. 



HERMAN SIMON 

UNION HILL 



HERMAN SIMON, largely interested 
in manufacturing industries in New 
Jersey and Pennsylvania, was born in the 
free city of Frank fort-on-the-Main, Ger- 
many, April 29, 1850, his parents being 
Robert and Marie (Broell) Simon. His 
father was a tobacco manufacturer and 
general merchant, with establishments in 
Frankfort-on-the-Main and Antwerp, Bel- 
gium. Mr. Simon is a grand-nephew of 



Charles and Joseph Simon, who for many 
years were prominent and successful mer- 
chants in the dry-goods trade in Baltimore, 
Maryland. 

He received his general education in Has- 
sell's Institute, Frankfort-on-the-Main, lat- 
er pursuing technical studies in the Royal 
Weaving School at Mulheim-on-the-Rhine 
— it being the custom in German families to 
give the sons a training in some manual vo- 



BIOGRAPHICAL CYCLOPEDIA 



87 



cation. Thus acquiring a thorough knowl- 
edge of the practical details of the textile 
industry, his course in life was decided by 
his early training. It may be remarked that 
his successful career as a manufacturer has 
been peculiarly due to his familiarity with 
technical minutiae, to which, notwithstand- 
ing the responsibilities of the direction ol 
extensive interests, he has at all times given 
his personal attention. 

In 1868, at the age of eighteen, he came 
to the United States, and for some years 
was employed with the firm of A. T. Stew- 
art and Co. in New York City. With his 
brother, Robert Simon, he embarked, in 
1874, in the silk manufacturing business in 
Union Hill, New Jersey, the firm of R. and 
H. Simon being then organized. The Un- 
ion Hill works have been enlarged at vari- 
ous times to accommodate the growing de- 
mand of the business, and now occupy fif- 
ty-three lots. In 1883 another factory was 
opened in Easton, Pennsylvania, and this is 
now even more extensive then that in Un- 
ion Hill, covering seven acres. The two 
establishments give employment to some 
two thousand and six hundred persons. 
The ware rooms of the firm are at 63 
Greene street. New York City. Until the 
death of Robert Simon in 1901 the brothers 



shared the direction of their large interests; 
since then the firm has been conducted, 
without change of name, by the surviving 
brother. It is distinguished by the high 
quality of its products and a progressive 
policy has always been practiced, the Simon 
firm being noted for its enterprise in intro- 
ducing improved machinery and processes. 
It owns valuable patents, which are pro- 
tected both in this country and Europe. 

Personally, Mr. Simon is known for his 
high business standards, especially with ref- 
erence to obligations. He is a man of ener- 
getic character, with a strong sense of indi- 
vidual responsibility, and gives to details a 
personal attention which in these times is 
somewhat unusual for a man charged with 
considerable affairs. The spirit of the Si- 
mon firm in its relations with its employees 
has always been liberal, and Mr. Simon 
takes an active personal interest in their 
welfare. In addition to his manufacturing 
interest, he is a director in several banking 
institutions and industrial corporations. He 
is a member of the German Club of Hobo- 
ken, New Jersey, the Deutscher Verein and 
the National Arts Club of New York City, 
the Pom fret Club of Easton, Pennsylvania, 
and the Dallas Lodge of l-'ree Masons. 



ROBERT SIMON 

UNION HILL 



ROBERT SIMON, manufacturer, young- 
er brother of Herman Simon, was born 
in Frankfort-on-the-Main, Germany, No- 
vember 9, 1852. He was educated in the 
schools of his native city, continuing his 
studies in l-"rance, Italy, and Switzerland. 
Like his elder brother, he pursued a teclini- 
cal course in a weaving school and became 
proficient in silk weaving. He then served 
as an emphjyee in several large manufac- 
turing establishments of Germany and otlier 
European countries, obtaining an expert 



knowledge of the silk industry in its various 
inactical departments. 

Coming to America in 1870, Mr. Simon 
entered into active business as superintend- 
ent of the silk mill of Benkard & llutton in 
West Hoboken, New Jersey. Two years 
later, in conjunction with his brother, Her- 
man Simon, he organized the manufactur- 
ing interest which — still conducted under 
the firm style of R. and H. Simon — has at- 
tained so im])nrtant and honorable a posi- 
tion in the silk trade of this country. He 



88 



BIOGRAPHICAL CYCLOPEDIA 



was at the head of the concern until his 
death, having personal charge of the Union 
Hill works. 

Mr. Simon sustained throughout his life 
a reputation as one of the foremost men in 
the silk industry, and for his high sterling 
traits of character enjoyed the peculiar re- 
spect and esteem of all with whom he came 
in connection. A man of the most amiable 
and lovable qualities, exceedingly sympa- 
thetic, generous, and charitable, he was an 
ideal employer, and his workmen and their 
families found in him a personal friend 
upon whom they could depend under all 
circumstances and in times of need. His 
charities were extensive, both for their 
number and the amounts distributed, but 
while doing good with a liberal hand he 



shrank from any display, and his memory 
is cherished as that of one of the most sin- 
cere and unselfish of philanthropical bene- 
factors. Possessing refined and cultivated 
tastes, he was an enthusiastic amateur in 
the fine arts, and left a valuable collection 
of paintings. 

His death occurred July 26, 1901, in 
Koenigstein-im-Taunus, a famous German 
health resort. His funeral, held in Union 
Hill, New Jersey, August 28, following, 
was the occasion of an impressive and 
pathetic demonstration in his honor, being 
attended by the principal silk manufac- 
turers and merchants and by his employees 
of Union Hill, New Jersey, and Easton, 
Pennsylvania. 



HARRY NORMAN REEVES 

MONTCLAIR 



HARRY NORMAN REEVES, who has 
attained enviable standing as one of the 
younger members of the New Jersey bar, 
was born in Montclair, New Jersey, Febru- 
ary 2, 1876. He is the son of Charles I. 
and Sarah L. (Madison) Reeves, both old 
residents of Montclair and members of old 
and respected New Jersey families. The 
elder Reeves has always been a public-spir- 
ited citizen of Montclair, being a former 
member of the board of education in that 
place and president of the Montclair branch 
of the Young Men's Christian Associa- 
tion. 

The son, Harry Norman Reeves, received 
his education in the public schools and the 
high school of his native town, supple- 
mented by a course in the Bordentown Mil- 
itary Academy and in Princeton University 
from which latter institution he was grad- 
uated with the degree of bachelor of arts in 
the class of 1897. He then entered the New 
York Law School and was graduated there- 
from in 1899, with the degree of bachelor 



of laws. While attending the law school, 
he read law in the office of Edwin B. Good- 
ell at Montclair, being admitted to the bai 
of New Jersey as an attorney in November, 
1899, and as a counselor in November, 1902. 
After his admission, he established himself 
in the practice of his profession in Mont- 
clair, remaining there about a year. He then 
became the managing clerk for the law firm 
of McCarter & Adams, later Sommer & 
Adams, and when Thomas N. McCarter 
was appointed attorney general of the State 
of New Jersey, Mr. Reeves was made an as- 
sistant in the office and served in that ca- 
pacity until September, 1905, under Thomas 
N. McCarter and Robert H. McCarter. In 
the latter part of 1905 he became a mem 
ber of the firm of Raymond, Newman, 
Reeves & Van Blarcum, with which he re- 
mained identified until the partnership was 
dissolved in 1906, since which time he has 
carried on a general practice for himself, 
with offices in Newark and Montclair. 
He is a special master and examiner in 



BIOGRAPHICAL CYCLOPEDIA 



89 



chancery and a supreme court exaininei. 
His ability as a lawyer has been amply dem- 
onstrated in the cases in which he has taken 
a part. He has been prominently and suc- 
cessfully connected with considerable litiga- 
tion of an important character and has a 
clientile both extended and influential. His 
knowledge of law is deep, his advice to be 
relied on. and he gives careful study to the 
matters entrusted to his charge. 

In his political principles and affiliations 
Mr. Reeves is a Republican, and he takes 



an active part in public and political affairs 
in Alontclair, although he has never sought 
or held inihlic office. He is a member of 
the Lawyers' Club of Essex County, the 
Montclair Club, the Golf Club of Glen 
Ridge, and the Princeton Alumni .Associa- 
tion of Montclair and vicinity, of which lat- 
ter organization he is the secretary. He also 
holds membership in the .Modern Woodmen 
of America. He married October 4, 1900, 
Alta U. Collins, of Bloomfield. N. J., 
daughter of William Augustus Collins. 



FRANK ROWLAND LONG 

HACKENSACK 



FR-^NK ROWLAND LONG, promi- 
nent as a bridge builder whose achieve- 
ments in that field of effort have won him 
enviable distinction in New Jersey, was 
born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, No- 
vember 12, 1856, of Quaker parentage. He 
w-as the son of William Addison and Mary 
Jane Long, and traces his hneage back to 
old and honorable quaker stock, on both 
sides, the founders of his family in this 
country having been among the original col- 
ony brought to Pennsylvania by William 
Penn. His grandfather was William Addi- 
son Long, a representative citizen in Little 
Britain township, Lancaster county, Penn- 
sylvania, and a man of broad influence 
among the Friends in that section. Through 
his grandmother, he is descended from the 
well-known Reynolds family. 

Mr. Long received his education in the 
public schools of his native State and be- 
gan his career as a clerk in the bank of 
which his fatiier was the cashier. Appoint- 
ed as deputy recorder of deeds, of Chester 
County, Pennsylvania, he served in that ca- 
pacity for three years, after which he en- 
tered the employ of William Sellers & 
Company, tool manufacturers in Philadel- 
phia. Later he became the purchasing 
agent of the Pottstown Iron Company of 



Pottstown, Pennsylvania, removing to New 
York City in 1886, where he embarked in 
the bridge contracting business, a line in 
which he was successful from the outset 
and in which he has ever since actively con- 
tinued, gaining repute therein as one of the 
most reliable representatives of his calling, 
his completed work in every instance show- 
ing substantial qualities that served to wm 
him respect. 

He has constructed in New Jersey and 
elsewhere. The Paterson Plank Road 
bridge over the Hackensack River, and the 
reinforced concrete bridge at Catskill, New 
York, are examples of his ability in the 
field that he has made particularly his own. 
He has built no fewer than eight bridges 
across the Passaic River and four across 
the Hackensack. Much of his success has 
been due to the fact that he has given per- 
sonal attention to his work. He has insist- 
ed upon the best attainable results in every 
contract that has been entrusted to his 
hands, employing skilled labor only and 
using none but the best available materials. 
His methods have been honest and the out- 
come lasting, and he possesses the full con- 
fidence of every one with whom he has ever 
held relations. He is a Republican in his 
political views and he is a member of the 



90 



BIOGRAPHICAL CYCLOPEDIA 



New York and New Jersey Bridge Com- 
mission for the construction of a bridge 
across the Hudson, a responsibility for 
which he is pecidiarly quahfied, both by rea- 
son of knowledge and experience. 

Mr. Long was for seven years a member 
of the National Guard of Pennsylvania, 
while a resident of that State, and he par- 
ticipated in active service in and around 
Pittsburgh during the great riots of 1877, 
going to the front as a drummer boy and 
coming back as a sergeant, having won his 
stripes by meritorious performance of his 
duty. 

The business enterprise of Mr. Long is 
now operated in corporate form, under the 
style of the F. R. Long Company, with its 
founder as president and treasurer. It is 
one of the leading undertakings of its 
class. 

Mr. Long is connected with a large num- 



ber of organizations and is active in Free- 
masonry, having attained the distinction of 
the thirty-second degree in that order. He 
is a member of the Old Guard, of New 
York City, and of the Benevolent and Pro- 
tective Order of Elks. He also belongs to 
the Hackensack Golf Club, the Kinderkamac 
Canoe Club and the Hackensack Club. He 
has been an extensive traveller, having vis- 
ited Mexico, Cuba and all parts of the 
United States, both on business and pleas- 
ure. He married in 1897 Elizabeth B. Fox, 
daughter of George and Harriet Fox, of 
New Orleans, her family being one of 
prominence in Louisiana and Kentucky. 
There were no children to this union. Mr. 
Long makes his home in Hackensack, where 
he is esteemed as a representative citizen 
who takes a keen interest in everything that 
tends to advance the material welfare of 
the community at large. 



ISIDOR KALISCH, D. D. 

NEWARK 



ISIDOR KALISCH, D. D., one of the 
most distinguished rabbis of his time, 
was born in Krotoschin, Dutchy of Posen, 
Prussia, November 5, 1816, and died in 
Newark, New Jersey, May 9, 1886. The 
Reverend Burnham Kalisch, of Krotoschin, 
his father, was "widely known throughout 
the Dutchy as a man of learning, piety, and 
benevolence," and was "deeply versed in 
Hebraic lore." He died in Krotoschin, Sep- 
tember I, 1856. His wife was a woman of 
strong intellect and great force of charac- 
ter. Of their seven children the oldest was 
the Reverend Isidor Kalisch, D. D., the sub- 
ject of this sketch. 

Dr. Kalisch was even more illustrious 
than his father, receiving international 
recognition through his public labors and 
his published works. From early childhood 
he evinced decidedly scholarly predilection, 
and "in his ninth year was remarkably pro- 



ficient in Talmudical and Hebrew Learn- 
ing." After finishing the curriculum of the 
gymnasium (on a par with our American 
colleges) he studied in the Universities of 
Berlin, Breslau, and Prague, obtaining testi- 
monials from the most eminent professors. 
During this time he was a contributor to 
leading German periodicals, notably the 
Breslaucr, Beobachter, the Figaro, and Dr. 
Julius Fuerst's Orient. He was the author 
of one of the most popular songs of that 
warlike period in Germany, "War Songs of 
the Germans" ("Schlacht Gesang der Dcut- 
schen"), which was dedicated to the Prince 
of Prussia, December 31, 1842, and was ac- 
cepted by the Prince, — afterward Emperor 
William — in a note to Dr. Kalisch, January 
12, 1843. The song was set to music by 
Music Director Mueller, of Breslau, and at 
once became the fashion. His attitude has 
thus been characterized: 









«,/>. /*-* .W*^*i- v» 



BIOGRAPHICAL CYCLOPEDIA 



91 



"Iinbiicd with the love of liberty, and 
witnessing the oppression of his fellow- 
men under the forms of government and 
law, his generous nature decried these 
things; he wrote poems breathing the true 
spirit of liberty; contributed articles to 
newspapers which were condemned as se- 
ditious by tyrannical censors; and thus, 
when, in 1848, the revolutionary fever had 
reached a crisis, he became one of the many 
obnoxious citizens who were inimical to the 
welfare of Prussia because they were stum- 
bling blocks to the progress of tyranny and 
oppression. He was compelled to leave Ger- 
many. He made his way to London, Eng- 
land, and after a sojourn there of several 
months, he left for New York City." 

Dr. Kalisch delivered in Krotoschin, in 
1843, the "first German sermon ever 
preached in his native town." He arrived 
in New '^'ork August 28, 1849, and in the 
following July was called as minister of the 
congregation Tifireth Israel, of Cleveland, 
Ohio. Here he began the distinctive work 
which was afterward to characterize his la- 
bors as a rabbi and carry his name to every 
section of the country. Finding his charge 
at Cleveland strictly "orthodox (hermetical- 
ly attached to all the useless and meaning- 
less Jewish religious rites and ceremonies of 
bygone ages,)" the doctor "unhesitatingly 
and boldly planted the banner of reformed 
Judaism" among them, and by means of his 
sound reasoning disarmed opposition, and 
presently saw the congregation "thorough- 
ly infected" with his own spirit of reform. 
His work in Cleveland has been well char- 
acterized as a "sudden revolution in the af- 
fairs of the Jewish Church." It inaugu- 
rated a movement which spread in every di- 
rection. The immediate effect is best de- 
scribed in the words of the memoir pre- 
viously cited : 

"The preacher's course, while it received 
the sanction of his congregation, drew him 
into heated newspaper controversies with 
the orthodox Jewish ministers in various 
cities. They were, however, silenced by his 
trenchant and facile pen." 



The result of his vigorous onslaught on 
the worthless ceremonies, customs, and rites 
practiced by orthodox Jews was the assem- 
bling of the first conference of rabbis at 
Cleveland, Ohio, in 1855. The object of 
this conference was to better the spiritual 
condition of the Jews in America, to strip 
the Jewish divine service from heathenish 
and idolatrous customs; to weed out sense- 
less and useless prayers and to establish a 
uniform divine service throughout the land. 
Dr. Kalisch's removals from one city to an- 
other were largely induced by his zeal to 
spread and perfect the movement begun at 
Cleveland. Moreover, he devoted several 
years between pastorates to lecturing and 
preaching in all the large cities in the Union, 
carrying on the same propaganda. Yet in no 
instance did he fail to devote hitnself with 
equal zeal to the material condition of his 
congregation. In Cleveland, through his ex- 
ertions, a new synagogue and school were 
erected. In Milwaukee he accomplished a 
similar achievement after having reunited a 
congregation which had divided into two 
factions, worshipping in separate syna- 
gogues. Through his efforts was also or- 
ganized in Milwaukee the "Die Treue 
Schwestern," a benevolent society among 
the Jewish ladies. 

.As a profound scholar, philologist, and 
prolific author Dr. Kalisch must always re- 
main best known to the learned world. He 
wrote numerous essays on religious and sec- 
ular subjects, maintained and carried on ex- 
tensive religious controversies in the Jewish 
press, both aggressive and defensive, with 
the orthodox and ultra-reform elements in 
Judaism, and wrote poems which appeared 
at frequent intervals in German newspapers 
and periodicals. His lecture on the "Source 
of all Civilization" attracted wide attention 
and was reviewed by James Parton in the 
Atlantic Monthly (August 1867) ; another 
on ".Ancient and Modern Judaism" was not 
less notable; while still others of note were 
on "Divine Providence," "The Origin of 
Language and the Great Future of the Eng- 



92 



BIOGRAPHICAL CYCLOPEDIA 



lish Tongue," Jewish Ethics," and the "Life 
and Works of Moses Maimonides." He 
contributed a series of articles on the Tal- 
mud, "The Wine of the Bible," "All Chris- 
tians Astray on Baptism," and kindred top- 
ics, to the Christian Union, of which Henry 
Ward Beecher was then editor ; and in vari- 
ous periodicals in this country published 
such essays as the "Origin of the Doctrine 
of Demons and Evil Spirits taught by Ju- 
daism and Christianity Illustrated," "Opin- 
ions on the Value of the Talmud by the 
Most Learned Christian Theologians," "On 
the Sphere of our Activity as Israelites," 
"The Old Biblical Doctrine of the Idea of 
God, On the Science of Education," to- 
gether with critical biographies of Moses 
Maimonides and Haftaly Hartewid Wes- 
sely. His "Wegiveiser fucr rationelle For- 
schungen in den BibliscJicn Schriften," pub- 
lished in 1853, receiving the flattering no- 
tice of the German, English and French 
press. In this profound work he contends 
upon the basis of a critical examination of 
the New Testament Scriptures that all that 
is distinctive in Christianity is derived from 
Judaic doctrines and customs. In 1855, at 
the solicitation of Professor Gibbs, of Yale 
College, Dr. Kalisch deciphered the Phoeni- 
cian inscription found at Sidon, Asia. His 
rendering was read before the London 
Syro-Egyptian Society and published in the 
transactions of that society as preferable to 
the translations submitted about the same 
time by the Due de Luynes, of Paris, E. C. 
Dietrich, of Marburg, Germany, and W. M. 
W. Turner. Dr. Kalisch published a splendid 
English translation of Lessing's "Nathan 
der Weisc," and rendered the same service 
for the "Sephcr Yezirah," the first philoso- 
phical book ever written in the Hebrew lan- 
guage. In connection with this last he also 
issued a "Sketch of the Talmud," in which 
he summarizes the results of fifty years of 
study. 

Besides his rare learning and fecundity as 
a prose writer he was a poet of unusual 
powers. He possessed the extraordinary 



ability of cultivating the muse in three lan- 
guages, German, Hebrew and English. In 
1865 his German poems to that date were 
collected in a volume entitled "Sounds of 
the Orient" ("Toene dcs Morgen-Landes"). 
Such gems in this volume as "Die Letcen 
Lebensmomcnte Moses," "Die Mystiche 
Harfc," "Der Tcufelstein," and "Gesicht 
der Seek" are unsurpassed of their kind. Of 
his Hebrew hymns many are to be found in 
the Reformed Hebrew Prayer Book. An- 
other poem in Hebrew, read before the 
Cleveland Conference already referred to, 
has been pronounced a masterpiece. "After 
his death," we learn, "among his manu- 
scripts was found a considerable collection 
of original Hebrew poems, tales and fables, 
and translations from German and English 
poets into Hebrew, which have never found 
their way into print." Among his other 
published writings may be mentioned his 
contributions to Talmudic Lexicography in 
the London Jezvish Chronicle and Hebreiv 
Observer (March 22, 1867) and in the Jud- 
ische Literatur Blatt (Magdeburgh, Ger- 
many) ; English sermons which appeared in 
the Jezvish Messenger on "Timely W^ords" 
in 1870 and on "Excellence of Judaism" in 
1871 ; a series of "Exegetical Lectures on 
the Bible" (The Occident, Philadelphia, 
1 85 1 and 1852) ; a series of "Contributions 
on Philosophical Literature" (American Is- 
raelite, 1854 and 1855) ; "Prefactory Re- 
marks to the Book of Esther" (1857); 
"The Book of Antiochus" (translated from 
the Hebrew, 1859) ; "A Disquisition Con- 
cerning the time of Composing the Accents 
of the Hebrew" (1863); "Hebrew Litera- 
ture and Proselytism according to the Bi- 
blical Talmudical Laws" (1866); "Dis- 
course on the Preference of the Mosaic 
Laws, "as delivered by Rabbi Moses ben 
Nacham in 1263, before King Jacob, at Sar- 
agossa (translation 1866) ; "Contributions 
to the Jewish Liturgy" (1870) ; "Historical 
Researches — Who was Tryphon, mentioned 
by Justin the Martyr," etc. (1880); "Dis- 
quisition on some Liturgical Subjects" 



BIOGRAPHICAL CYCLOPEDIA 



93 



(1880); "The Value of the Hebrew Lan- 
guage" (1880) ; "Real Treasures of Earth" 
(1880). 
Dr. Kalisch left five sons, of whom four, 



Leonard, Samuel, Abner, and Burnham, be- 
came lawyers, and one, Albert, became a 
journalist; and a daughter, Mrs. Simon 
Wiener. 



SAMUEL KALISCH 

NEWARK 



SAMUEL KALISCH, son of the Rever- 
end Isidor Kalisch. D. D., was born in 
Cleveland, Ohio, April 18, 185 1. He was 
educated under his father, and mastered 
Greek and Latin at the age of twelve. In 
1869 he was graduated from the Columbia 
Law School with the degree of Bachelor of 
Laws. He was admitted to the New Jer- 
sey bar as an attorney in February, 1871, 
and soon afterward began active practice in 
Newark, where he has since resided. In 
February, 1874, he was admitted to the bar 
as counselor. 

Very soon after he began the practice of 
his profession Mr. Kalisch came into promi- 
nence as one of the leading criminal law- 
yers in the State, and for many years held 
the foremost place in that department of 
legal practice. This, however, he gradually 
abandoned, owing to the large increase of 
his civil business, which consists principally 
of damage cases against railroads ; yet he is 
still recognized as one of the ablest and most 
prominent criminal lawyers in New Jersey. 
Among his noted criminal cases may be 
mentioned that of Joseph Koerner, indicted 
for murder, whose acquittal he secured in 
1878. He also successfully defended West- 
brook, of Newton, and Burke, Noonan, and 
Dunn, of Union County, and in 1880 se- 
cured a reversal in the Supreme Court in 
the judgment in the case of Dr. Gedicke. 
His eloquent pleading also resulted in a ver- 
dict of manslaughter in the seemingly hope- 
less case of George Stickert, "Fiddler" 
Smith, William Hoffman, John Weiss, 
Thomas Hefferan, and Wildinghaus. He 
carried the famous cases of James B. 



Graves and John Chisholm (the latter in- 
dicted for wife murder) through the higher 
courts before relinquishing his efforts. In 
his appeals to the higher courts he has been 
remarkably successful, often establishing 
precedents and frequently surprising the 
bench by unearthing forgotten statutes. He 
was the first lawyer in the State of New 
Jersey to get a man out of State Prison un- 
der a writ of habeas corpus. 

In recent years Mr. Kalisch has devoted 
himself exclusively to important civil liti- 
gations, a department in which his efforts 
have been no less notable and successful. He 
is counsel for many important interests. 
From 1877 to 1879 he was counsel for the 
American Protective Association, and in 
1875 was elected Corporation Attorney for 
the City of Newark, filling the position with 
distinction. He was nominated for the New 
Jersey Assembly on the Democratic ticket in 
1879 and was defeated by a very narrow 
margin. Outside of his profession his tastes 
are distinctly literary, as were those of his 
father. In his study days he occupied him- 
self considerably in journalism, both as edi- 
tor and special writer, and is the author of 
]3oems, essays, sketches of travel, and other 
miscellany. He is the author of the memor- 
ial of Dr. Kalisch, published in 1886, an ar- 
ticle on "Influence of Women on .American 
Juries," "Up the Hudson," "Newark to 
Nashville," a poem, "Legend of the Tal- 
mud," and many similar efforts. His series 
of article on "Legal Abuses" are credited 
with having "led to the reform of the minor 
judiciary and the establishment of the dis- 



94 



BIOGR.\PHICAL CYCLOPEDIA 



trict courts." His memorial volume of his 
father, published in 1886, attracted wide at- 
tention in the religious world. He has gath- 
ered an extensive library, which, added to 
the valuable library inherited from his fath- 
er, constitutes a notable collection. To this 
he has added some of the rarest treasures 



of the bookmaking art, which he acquired in 
the course of his extensive travels abroad. 
He is president of the New Jersey State 
Bar Association to which position he was 
elected in June, 1909, and he is also a mem- 
ber of the Society of Medical Jurisprudence 
of New York and of the Grolier Club. 



THE MANNERS FAMILY 

JERSEY CITY 



WHILE not numerous, this family is 
one of great antiquity and consider- 
ation in England. The house of Manners 
is best known as the one from which orig- 
inated the earls and dukes of Rutland — the 
peerage being now of nearly five hundred 
years' standing — whose noble castle of Bel- 
voir is one of the historic homes of Eng- 
land. Sir Thomas Manners was summon- 
ed to parliament, November 12, 15 15, as 
Baron Roos of Hamlake; he was also 
Baron Trusbut and Belvoir, warden of the 
east marches toward Scotland (1522), and 
knight of the garter and was created by 
Henry VIII., June 18, 1526, earl of Rut- 
land. He obtained an augmentation to his 
arms by reason of his descent from a sister 
of Edward IV. ; was lord chamberlain to 
Queen Anne of Cleves and chief-justice in 
Eyre, north of Trent ; he died September 
20, 1543, and was buried at Botsford, Lei- 
cestershire. 

The coat armor of the family is: Arms — 
or, two bars azure ; a chief quarterly, azure 
and gules; on the first and fourth, two 
fleurs-de-lis, and on the second and third a 
lion of England passant guardant, all or. 
Crest (adopted after the marriage of Sir 
Robert Manners) — on a chapcau gules, 
turned up ermine, a peacock in pride prop- 
er. Sit/'potters — two unicorns argent, 
armed, crined, tufted, and unguled or. 
Motto — Pour y parvenir. 

Of a branch of this eminent family was 
John Manners, from Yorkshire, England, 



son of Anthony Manners. John Manners 
was born in 1678. He emigrated to Amer- 
ica about 1700, settled in Upper Freehold, 
New Jersey, and afterward removed to 
Amwell, Hunterdon County, New Jersey, 
where he died in 1770, aged ninety-two 
years. The "History of Hunterdon Coun- 
ty" states that he came there in 17 18 and 
purchased the farm, which has always re- 
mained in the possession of the family, and 
was owned in 1881 by Jacob S. Manners. 
A deed of 1728 shows that John Manners 
owned about four hundred acres. He mar- 
ried Rebecca Stout of Middletown, New 
Jersey, daughter of David, son of Richard 
and Penelope (Van Princess) Stout, the 
founders of Middletown, in 1648. His 
children were John, Rebecca, Elizabeth and 
Lydia. 

John Manners, eldest child and only son 
of John and Rebecca (Stout) Manners, 
was born in 1728 and died June 25, 1806. 
He married, first, in April, 1756, Mary Hig- 
gins, daughter of Joseph Higgins; she died 
in 1759; Issue: Elisha, born in 1757, and 
John, born 1759, the latter being the ances- 
tor of Dr. John Manners of Hunterdon, 
president of the New Jersey senate in 1852. 
He married, second, in January, 1764, Anna 
Stout, who died October 18, 1810; Issue: 
Moses, born in 1767, Rachel, born in 1770, 
David, born in 1777, and Abraham, born in 
1779. 

David Manners, third child of the pre- 
ceding John Manners by his second mar- 




K. r5^ , \A AJZxaaaax^ 





dAMu^m^ 



OlAMAy^^^^^ 



BIOGRAPHICAL CYCLOPEDIA 



95 



riage, was born June 15, 1777, and died 
December i, 1836. He fought as an officer 
in the War of 1812, and was subsequently 
elected a member of the New Jersey Leg- 
islature. He married Alary Schenck, fourth 
child of Captain John Schenck of Hunter- 
don County, New Jersey. Captain John 
Schenck was born in Ringoes, Hunterdon 
County, New Jersey, May 26, 1750, and 
died August 23, 1823. He was an active 
and ardent patriot m the War of the Revo- 
lution, taking part in the battles of Prince- 
ton and Monmouth. His principal exploit, 
which made him famous as a guerilla fight- 
er, occurred in the latter part of 1778, and 
is described in Barber and Howe's "His- 
torical Collections of New Jersey". The 
children of David and Mary (Schenck) 
Manners were Adah, born 1799, John S., 
born 1801, Abraham, born 1803, Theodore, 
born 1805, David Stout, born 1808, Rachel 
Ann, born 1810, Jacob S., born 181 1, Mary, 
born 1814, and Jane, born 1818. 

David Stout Manners, son of David and 
Mary (Schenck) Manners, was born in 
East Amwell, New Jersey, January 12, 
1808. In 1840 he began his mercantile 
career in New York, and continued there 
successfully for a number of years. In 
1844 he removed, settled in Jersey City, 
and four years later was chosen a member 
of the first aldermen's council elected by 
general ticket, in which he served as chair- 
man of the committee on finance. Later he 
was elected an alderman from the second 
ward, and immediately was made President 
of the Common Council, by virtue of which 
office he became a member of the Board of 
Water Commissioners. He was largely in- 
strumental in establishing the first water- 
works in Jersey City, and in 1852 he was 
elected mayor on the citizens' ticket. In 
that capacity he served for five successive 
terms, and doubtless could have had an in- 
definite tenure had he so desired, but at the 
end of his fifth term he declined further re- 
nomination. He was repeatedly tendered 
election to the State Senate and Congress, 
but positively refused these honors. For 



some time he was president of the New 
Amterdam Fire Insurance Company of 
New York City. He died August 19, 1884. 
He married, in 1843, Deborah Philips 
Johnes, who was born November 25, 1820, 
and died March 26, 1876, a daughter of 
David and Sophia (Creveling) Johnes — ' 
the former a son of Major David Johnes 
of the Revolution, and a descendant of Ed- 
ward Johnes, one of the founders of South- 
ampton, Long Island, who was formerly of 
Massachusetts, whither he came from Eng- 
land with Governor Winthrop in 1630. The 
children of this marriage were : Virginia, 
born in 1844, Marie Louise, born in 1846, 
Helen, born in 1848, Blanche, born in 1851, 
Sheridan, born in 1853, Edwin, born in 
1855, Linda, born in 1856 and died in in- 
fancy, and Clarence, born in 1857. 

Edwin Manners, sixth child of David 
Stout and Deborah Philips (Johnes) Man- 
ners, was born in Jersey City, March 6, 
1855. His preparatory education was re- 
ceived chiefly in the Hasbrouck Institute of 
Jersey City and the Mt. Pleasant Military 
Academy of Ossining-on-Hudson. In 1877 
he was graduated from Princeton Univer- 
sity, with the baccalaureate, and in 1879 
from the Columbia Law School of New 
York City. While acting as his father's 
assistant in the management of a large 
property, he prepared himself for the prac- 
tical duties of his chosen profession in the 
law office of Collins and Corbin. He was 
admitted to the bar as attorney in i88o and 
as counsellor in 1883, and has since been 
engaged in legal practice in Jersey City. 

Mr. Manners while not active in public 
affairs, is known as a citizen of earnest de- 
votion to the best interests of the commun- 
ity in which he lives. Much of his leisure 
has been employed in literary pursuits, of 
which he is excessively fond, and his con- 
tributions to the public press on various 
topics have attracted attention. He is con- 
nected as stockholder or director with a 
number of business corporations. He has 
travelled abroad to some extent, having 



96 



BIOGRAPHICAL CYCLOPEDIA 



visited the principal cities of Europe and 
especially the places of interest along that 
classical objective of travel the Mediter- 
ranean littoral. 
His memberships in organizations in- 



clude the Sons of the American Revolution, 
the Princeton Club of New York City, the 
L'niversity and Palnia clubs of Jersey City, 
the Hudson County Bar Association and 
the local Historical Society. 



SYLVESTER S. BATTIN 

NEWARK 



SYLVESTER S. BATTIN, the late 
President of the Manufacturers Bank 
of Newark, was one of the conspicuous fig- 
ures of Newark in the field of finance. Not 
only as a banker, but as a railroad magnate, 
and as a promoter of large enterprise gen- 
erally, his name becomes prominently 
identified with much in the history of our 
work. 

Mr. Battin was born in Philadelphia, De- 
cember 15, 1829. He was the son of Jos- 
eph Battin and Harriet Strong. His father 
was a descendant of a distinguished Nor- 
man, who fought with William the Con- 
queror at the battle of Hastings, and his 
mother was ninth in descent from John 
Strong, founder of Dorchester and North- 
ampton, Mass., through whom he was con- 
nected with the Hale family, his great- 
grandfather being a cousin of Nathan Hale, 
the martyr patriot. The Battins were 
among the early Quaker settlers of Penn- 
sylvania. 

While a lad, Mr. Battin came with his 
parents to Newark, and entered the school 
of Dr. Hedges, and later the old Montclair 
Academy. His father was a wealthy con- 
tractor and a well known engineer. He 
built the tunnel under Black Rock Harbor 
in the Niagara River for the purpose of 
supplying Buffalo with water, which was in 
itself no small engineering feat. It was 
at the time this tunnel was built, that young 
Battin, then in his teens, engaged with his 
father in business, and was soon after- 
wards in enterprises of his own undertak- 
ing, independent of his father. At this 



early age he began that career which after- 
wards covered the building of the gas 
plants in Syracuse, Albany, Yonkers, and 
Newburg, New York. Subsequently, he 
went to Brazil, where he formed a close ac- 
quaintanceship with Emperor Don Pedro, 
through whose influence he secured many 
contracts. He built the water works, and 
seven street car fines in Rio Janeiro. 

In the old days of horse cars, Mr. Bat- 
tin was the President of the Newark and 
Bloomfield Street Railway Company. He 
purchased this road in 1862, and when the 
consolidation of street railroads took place, 
a quarter of a century ago, he became pres- 
ident of the Essex Passenger Street Rail- 
way Company, which controlled the lines 
within the jurisdiction of the county. He 
sold out all of these interests in 1890. In 
July 1893 he was elected President of the 
Security Savings Bank, Newark, and on 
January 11, 1895, he was made President 
of the Manufacturers' National Bank, both 
of which positions he held at the time of 
his death, July 3, 1904. 

He was a vestryman of Trinity Episco- 
pal Church, Newark, and a member of the 
Union League Club of New York, of the 
Essex Club of Newark, a life member of 
the New Jersey Historical Society, and a 
member of the Essex County Country Club. 
He was married three times. In 1852 he 
wedded Priscilla C. Davis, in 1856 Joanna 
B. Downing, and in 1898 Ada B. Douglas, 
who survived him. He was also survived 
by two sons, Sylvester S. Battin, Jr., and 
John Downing Battin. 



BIOGRAPHICAL CYCLOPEDIA 



97 



At the time of his death, the banks over 
which Mr. Battin had presided so long 
passed strong resohitions, in memory of his 
eminent serv'ices and worthy of the man. 
The following extract from one of the 
leading publications in the city, voices the 
general estimate placed upon his character. 

"The late Sylvester S. Battin, altliough 
born and reared in luxury, showed the 
strong impress of his Quaker ancestry upon 
his character, and never looked upon the 
acquisition of wealth as the main object of 
life. He was a man of singularly simple 
tastes, and money was simply the means to 
an end — the means for caring for his fam- 
ily and for making others happy. He was 
in sympathy with all that tended to the up- 
lifting of the people, and only those who 
have been the means through which he 
made his gifts know the extent of his bene- 
factions. He did not wait to be asked to 
help a worthy cause, but gave generously 



and with pleasure whenever he knew finan- 
cial aid was needed and was withal so gen- 
erous that it was a pleasure to talk with 
him concerning the aims of the various or- 
ganizations for the retrievement of human- 
ity. It was never evident that he carried 
the burden of the several financial institu- 
tions of which he was president, for he had 
the rare faculty of leaving his business 
where it belonged. When the cares of the 
day were over, he was at the service of his 
family and friends and no allusion was 
ever made to business. He was most faith- 
ful in his duties to his church and regular 
in his attendance, being as careful in the 
discharge of his duty as vestryman as in 
business. While of the most attractive gen- 
ial personality he was a man of strong char- 
acter and unflinching integrity. Perhaps 
the keynote to his character was his con- 
servatism and his unwillingness to engage 
in enterprises of questionable rectitude no 
matter how much material gain they might 
promise." 



JAMES J. MURPHY 

JERvSEY CITY 



JAMES J. MURPHY, a successful mem- 
ber of the Hudson County Bar of New 
Jersey, and a lawyer who has attain- 
ed high standing in his profession, 
was born in New York City, July 3, 
1868. He is the son of William and 
Mary (Hanley) Murphy both whom were 
natives of Ireland. The father died in Jer- 
sey City, New Jersey, October 18, 1885, the 
mother having preceded him to the grave 
February 4, 1884. 

The son was taken to Jersey City by his 
parents when he was only a year old, and 
he received his education in that city, where 
he attended Public School No. 13, St. Pet- 
er's College, and Gaskill's Business College. 
He read law there in the office of Charles 
H. Winfield and his son, H. Westbrook 
Winfield, and in the meantime was a stu 
dent in the University Law School in New 
York City, from which institution he was 
graduated in May, 1890. At that time he 



had already been admitted to the bar of 
New Jersey as an attorney, November, 1889, 
and he was made a counselor-at-law in Feb- 
ruary, 1893, remaining in the office of his 
preceptor until April, 1893, when he formed 
a copartnership with Michael I. Fagen, un- 
der the firm name of Fagen & Murphy. 

As a lawyer Mr. Murphy speedily 
achieved recognition, his ability proving of 
an order that attracted attention, and he fig- 
ured prominently in a number of important 
cases, in every instance acquitting himself 
with skill and displaying thorough and ac- 
curate knowledge of the law. He enjoys an 
extended practice that includes the names of 
many of Hudson county's leading business 
men and firms, and he is noted for the care 
and attention that he gives to the interests 
represented by him as general counsel. Mr. 
Murphy is a Democrat politically and he 
participates actively in the campaign work 
of his party. He holds membership in a 



98 



BIOGRAPHICAL CYCLOPEDIA 



number of fraternal and social organiza- 
tions, and is regarded as one of Jersey City's 
leading and most useful citizens. 

He was a member of the New Jersey 
Legislature from Hudson County for the 
years 1898, 1899 and 1900, and leader of 



the minority in the Legislature during the 
year 1899. He sat on the bench as Judge of 
the Second Criminal Court of Jersey City 
from April 28, 1900, to January i, 1904, and 
at the present time (1909) is Corporation 
Attorney of Jersey City. 



JAMES H. SHACKLETON 



EAST ORANGE 



JAMES H. SHACICLETON, who has 
figured conspicuously and with mark- 
ed credit in the banking life of New York 
and New Jersey, was born in Buffalo, New 
York. He is the son of James R. Shackle- 
ton and Grace Donoughue and is a descend- 
ant of old and respected ancestry. Taken 
to Brooklyn, New York, as a child by his 
parents, he was reared and educated in that 
city, where he attended the public schools 
and later entered the Brooklyn High 
School. After completing his studies at the 
latter institution, he engaged in business 
life by entering the service of the well- 
known banking firm of Piatt & Woodward, 
of New York City, who were afterward 
succeeded by Charles Hathaway & Co., 
with which firm he remained, acquiring a 
thorough familiarity with the principles of 
finance, until he identified himself with the 
Nassau National Bank of Brooklyn. He 
continued connected with that bank for an 
active period of thirteen years, during 
which time he demonstrated his peculiar 
fitness for the line of endeavor in which 
he had embarked. He had applied himself 
with such zeal to the duties assigned him 
and worked with such intelligence that ad- 
vancement speedily followed and he rose 
step by step in the service of the bank until 
he was finally promoted to the position of 
loan and discount clerk. He resigned this 
responsibility and severed his connection 
with the Nassau National Bank in order to 
identify himself with the organization of 



the City Trust Company, of Newark, N. 
J., aiding very materially in the establish- 
ment of that undertaking and becoming its 
Secretary and Treasurer, as well as a Di- 
rector, in which capacity he contributed not 
a little toward making the venture the suc- 
cess that it proved. 

He remained with the City Trust Com- 
pany but six months, however, resigning 
his position to become the Assistant Sec- 
retary and Assistant Treasurer of the Fi- 
delity Trust Company, of the same city, 
with which institution he still remains. He 
has been very successful as an officer of the 
latter company and has accomplished much 
toward the promotion of its prestige and 
the increase of its business. His services 
are appreciated by his associates and he is 
popular among the patrons of the concern, 
having the esteem and confidence of all 
with whom he holds relations. He pos- 
sesses business qualifications of an unusual- 
ly high order and he is a man of sound 
judgment and clear perception. In East 
Orange he is prominent in social circles 
and general affairs. He is a Republican 
politically, but while active in the advocacy 
of his party's cause he has never desired or 
held a place of public preferment, having 
no ambitions to gratify in that direction. 
He is a member of the Essex County Coun- 
try Club, the Roseville Athletic Association, 
the LTnion Club, of Newark, and the Auto 
and Motor Club of Newark. He has been 
twice married, first in August, 1891, to 




'/f c/c:^^^ 



BIOGRAPHICAL CYCLOPEDIA 



99 



Sarah Emma Chapman, by whom he had 
three children, James H. Jr., LiUian Ray, 
and Gerard. He married, second, Clara 



Edith Chapman, in December, 1903. There 
has been one daughter, Dorothy Edith, by 
this second union. 



FREDERICK WILLIAM EGNER 



NEWARK 



FREDERICK WILLIAM EGNER, 
whose entire business life has been 
identified with banking and finance, in 
which field he has achieved a distinction 
that is exceptional, was born in Orange, 
Xew Jersey, August 6, 1870. He is the son 
of John Frederick Egner and Elizabeth 
Graah, and it is noteworthy in this connec- 
tion that he came of old and highly re- 
spected ancestral stock on both sides. He 
was educated in the public schools of his 
native place and began his career at an early 
age, being but fourteen years old when he 
entered the service of the Half Dime Sav- 
ings Bank, of Orange, with which institu- 
tion he remained for seven years, display- 
ing a marked aptitude for the business from 
the very outset and applying himself to the 
duties assigned him with a zeal and intelli- 
gence that won him speedy advancement 
and enviable prestige. In 1891 he became 
associated with the Fidelity Trust Com- 
pany, of Newark, New Jersey, as assistant 
bookkeeper in the safe deposit department 
and he proved so efficient in that capacity 
that within the short period of si.x months 
his abilities were recognized by his transfer 
to the banking department of that institu- 
tion as assistant teller, which responsible 
position he filled about six months, when 
he was made paying teller, a place that he 
occupied for five years. 

On January 19, 1899, coincident with the 
election of Mr. McCarter as president oi 
the company, Mr. Egner was chosen as its 
secretary and treasurer, in which capacities 
he has since continued to serve for ten years 
aiding materially in the development of the 
institution and proving himself the right 



man in the right place. In 1909 he was 
elected to be the third vice-president of the 
institution, an office then newly created and 
in taking this position he retained the secre- 
taryship which he had long held in connec- 
tion with the trcasurership. One of his bi- 
ographers has said that "this is a record of 
which Mr. Egner may well feel proud and 
substantially emphasizes his ability and ex- 
cellent judgment in banking matters." "Mr. 
Egner," continues the writer in question, "is 
a strong man mentally, whose face bears 
the impress of a striking personality. He 
does a great deal of work quietly and ef- 
fectively. He sees matters just as they 
are and is thereby able to judge quickly and 
impartially." The Fidelity Trust Company, 
recognizing his peculiar genius, has em- 
powered him with the broadest possible de- 
gree of longitude and latitude, in which to 
work out success in accordance with his 
own talent for developing his department 
to the highest attainable degree of excel- 
lence. 

Mr. Egner is a member of the Newark 
Board of Trade and a director of the Union 
County Trust Company, of Elizabeth, and 
the Essex County Trust Company, of East 
Orange. He holds membership in a num- 
ber of leading social organizations, includ- 
ing the Essex Club, the Essex County Coun- 
try Club, the Baltusrol Golf Club, the For- 
est Hill Field Club, and the Salmagundi ana 
Lotos Clubs, of New York City, in all of 
which he is deservedly popular. He is a 
great lover of outdoor sports and much of 
his leisure time is spent in that way. Mr. 
Egner has been twice married, first in No- 
vember, 1895, to Florence G. Carter, who 



lOO 



BIOGRAPHICAL CYCLOPEDIA 



died in July, 1905, and second, in Decem- 
ber, 1907, to Elizabedi Wigton, of Phillips- 
burg, Pennsylvania. He is the father of 



three children by the first marriage, name- 
ly, J. Edmund, Harold F. and Horace F. 
Egner. 



PETER BONNETT 

ELIZABETH 



PETER BONNETT was born July 10, 
1840, in the old family residence in 
New York City. He is the son of Daniel 
and Margaret Brown (Whitlock) Bonnett, 
both natives of New York. His paternal 
grandfather was born in New York City 
and was a descendant of Daniel Bonnett, a 
French Huguenot, who settled in New 
Rochelle, New York, in 1700. He was a 
pioneer in the tannery and leather manufac- 
turing industry in New York, and conduct- 
ed business on an extensive scale in what 
is familiarly known in the trade as the 
"Swamp" in Frankfort Street. Peter Bon- 
nett's paternal grandmother was Jane Blake, 
of New York, daughter of Jonathan and 
Jane (Van Hook) Blake. 

Peter Bonnett's maternal grandfather 
was Captain William Whitlock, who was 
born in Monmouth County, New Jersey, 
being a descendant of Thomas Whitlock, 
one of the first settlers in that county, lo- 
cating at Shoal Harbor, now Port Mon- 
mouth, in 1664. This was before the grant- 
ing of the Monmouth Patent, in 1665. He 
acquired lands in the county and a location 
in Middletown at the time of its settlement, 
in 1667, being one of the original associates 
interested in the grant made by the old 
English Governor, William Nicoll, for the 
settlement of Monmouth County. William 
Whitlock was by occupation a sea captain 
and ship owner, which vocation he follow- 
ed for many years, being one of the first 
to command a merchant vessel sailing to 
Liverpool upon the opening of commercial 
relations between England and the United 
States after the close of the War of the 
Revolution. Captain Whitlock also made 



several voyages in command of vessels ply- 
ing between the United States and China. 

Peter Bonnett, the subject of this sketch, 
was educated in New York City in private 
schools. He was first employed in 1858 in 
the office of the Union Line, Havre Packets, 
as a clerk. The line was owned and oper- 
ated by his uncle, William Whitlock, Jr. 
Rapidly mastering the details of the various 
departments of the shipping business, in 
1865, he was sent as a special agent by his 
employers to China and to the Philippine 
Islands, making several business visits to 
Manila. He returned to the United States 
in 1870 and engaged in the management of 
a large property in Elizabeth and Linden, 
New Jersey. 

In 1874, with his parents, he removed 
from New York City to Elizabeth, New 
Jersey, where he has since resided. His 
first business occupation in New Jersey 
being the development of a large tract of 
land on the water front of Staten Island 
Sound, he caused efforts to be made for 
the improvement of that water-way, in 
which he took a prominent part in obtain- 
ing the first appropriation from the United 
States Government for deepening the chan- 
nel in 1876. In 1900 the Joint Waterways 
Committee was organized to promote the 
improvement of Staten Island Sound and 
Mr. Bonnett was made chairman. The ef- 
forts of this committee were crowned with 
success, when in 1903, the appropriation 
for the new twenty-one foot channel was 
granted by Congress. 

During his residence in Elizabeth, Mr. 
Bonnett has always been active in local mat- 
ters and was elected Mayor of Elizabeth in 



BIOGRAPHICAL CYCLOPEDIA 



lOI 



November, 1879, serving during the years 
1880-81. He was enthusiastic on the sub- 
ject of rifle practice and, although a civilian, 
was deeply interested in military affairs and 
particularly in promoting efficiency in 
marksmanship in the National Guard. To 
that end, he was instrumental in forming 
the New Jersey State Rifle Association in 
1878, which was organized under the pa- 
tronage of General George B. McClcllan, 
who was then Governor of New Jersey. 
Mr. Bonnett was chosen as Secretary of the 
State Rifle Association, and the principal 
duty of constructing and managing Brinton 
Range, situated between Elizabeth and 
Newark, devolved upon him. This range 
afforded practice for the National Guard 
imtil 1884, when its machinery was trans- 



ferred to the State grounds at Sea Girt. 
In 1886, Mr. Bonnett was appointed by 
the Secretary of the Treasury, Daniel Man- 
ning, Division Chief in his office, in charge 
of the United States Revenue Cutter Ser- 
vice. He removed to Washington and re- 
mained in the Treasury Department until 
1890, serving a portion of his term under 
Secretary Windom. Upon his return to his 
home in Elizabeth, he continued his activity 
in real estate matters and water-front im- 
provements, and was appointed to the office 
of Comptroller, January i, 1904, by Mayor 
Patrick J. Ryan, being reappointed, January 
I, 1907, for a further term of three years. 
He is a member of the Episcopal Church, 
St. John's Parish, Elizabeth. He is unmar- 
ried. 



CARL G. HELLER 

NEWARK 



CARL G. HELLER, successful and ef- 
ficient as he has been as an instructor 
and educator, has accomplished his best and 
most notable work as superintendent of the 
Newark City Home in Verona, New Jer- 
sey. Mr. Heller was born February 4, 
1859, '" Hohenacker, Germany. He is the 
son of Frederick Heller and Christiana 
Mergenthaler, both natives of Germany, 
through whom he traces his descent from 
an old and respected German ancestral 
stock. He received an excellent education 
in the schools of his native land and was 
graduated from the Royal Teachers' Col- 
lege, Esslingen. Wuerttemberg, Germany. 
He also attended the Conservatory of 
Music in Stuttgart. 

In 1880, when he was twenty-one years 
of age, Mr. Heller came to this country, 
locating in Newark, N. J., where he found 
employment as a teacher in the Beacon 
street school, serving as principal of that 
school for a period of twelve years but re- 
signing the place in 1903 in order to take 
7 



charge of the Newark City Home, of which 
he had been appointed superintendent, in 
which re.'sponsible capacity he has since 
continued to serve with the fullest credit. 
Mr. Heller is peculiarly adapted for the po- 
sition in question. His ability as a teacher 
is in itself a desirable qualification and, 
combined with this, are all other essential 
requisites, as is amply shown by the great 
success attending his administration of af- 
fairs at the home. Upon his appointment 
to the superintendency, IMr. Heller at once 
re-organized the school attached thereto in 
accordance with modern principles in edu- 
cation, introducing manual training and 
physical culture. The surroundings of the 
home were beautified in various ways and 
the institution has been considerably en- 
larged under his management. New in- 
dustries have been introduced and many 
other changes effected whereby the Home 
increased its usefulness and value. 

Superintendent Heller is also secretary 
of the Board of Trustees, and his annual 



102 



BIOGRAPHICAL CYCLOPEDIA 



reports exhibit a steady growth in the prac- 
tical benefits accruing to the children under 
his charge. The city of Newark is fortu- 
nate in having such a man at the head of 
its home. The appointment was one that 
time has proved to be eminently fit, and 
Mr. Heller has won the approval of every 
one familiar with his work. He takes a 
keen interest in the duties of his position 
and he performs them with an intelligence, 
effectiveness and fidelity that entitle him 
to the public thanks. Personally, Mr. Hel- 
ler is a high-minded gentleman of marked 



ability and thorough culture. As a citi- 
zen he is public spirited and progressive, 
and he is popular among all classes in his 
city. He holds membership in Schiller 
Lodge No. 66, Free and Accepted Masons, 
of Newark, and is an honorary member of 
the United German Singers of that city. 
Mr. Heller is a man of domestic tastes, de- 
voted to his home and family. He married 
in Newark, December 25, 1880, Paulina 
Holzboog. To this marriage were born six 
children, namely, Qiarles, Elsie, Herbert, 
Alma, Lillian and Isolde. 



SILAS CONDIT HALSEY 

NEWARK 



SILAS CONDIT HALSEY, for many 
years a leader in the business and social 
life of Newark and one of the most familiar 
figures on the streets of that city, was born 
in Springfield, N. J., on September 26, 
1829. A son of Samuel (1801-1884) and 
Mary Hutchings Halsey (1802- 1882) and 
brother of the Honorable George Arm- 
strong Halsey (1827- 1894), he was de- 
scended from a very old English family, 
the earliest tangible record of which is con- 
tained in a deed bearing the date of lOth 
July, 1458, which is now in possession of 
the Right Honorable Thomas Frederick 
Halsey, who has represented Herts in the 
British Parliament for many years. A 
grant of arms was made to the family by 
the Heralds College as early as 1633. In 
that year Mr. Halsey's first American an- 
cestor, Thomas Halsey, came to America 
to escape the eflfects of the despotism of 
King Charles I. of England, and settled 
in Lynn, Mass. Subsequently he was one 
of the signers of an agreement with Gov- 
ernor Winthrop to found a new colony on 
Long Island that would be free from the 
religious persecutions prevailing in New 
England, and he became a man of large in- 



fluence in the present town of Southamp- 
ton and throughout Long Island. 

Silas C. Halsey was eighth in descent in 
this line, which has included representa- 
tives eminent in the various warB of the 
country, in the ministry, in the National 
Congress, and in the State Legislature. 
His grandfather fought in the battle of 
Springfield, N. J., as a captain of Light 
Horse, and his father lived upon the 
Springfield farm, which he inherited, till 
1845, when he removed to Newark and es- 
tablished a large leather manufactory. In 
all his life Samuel Halsey was universally 
respected for his upright character and at- 
tractive personal qualities. Silas C. Halsey 
inherited strong religious convictions, a 
commanding physique (he was over six 
feet tall), an unusually genial tempera- 
ment, and charming social graces. Though 
above the ordinary height, he was framed 
in good proportions. He had a merry 
sparkle in his eye, and his whole features 
always bore an expression of kindliness 
and good nature. As his tall figure passed 
along his customary promenades, his face 
was ever breaking out in smiles. The 
grasp of his hand was strong and hearty. 
His voice was one of pleasing modulation. 





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'^. 






BIOGRAPHICAL CYCLOPEDIA 



103 



If ever a man really enjoyed his manifold 
friendships, Air. Halsey did. In his youth 
he took a keen interest and an active part 
in the athletic diversions of the day, and 
much of his later vigor and robust health 
was attributed to his early activity in the 
various fields of athletics. 

He received his early education in the 
private schools conducted by the Rev. Drs. 
Weeks and Bradley. Ill health compelled 
him to abandon a projected university 
course, and in 1853 he went to Petersburg, 
V'a., and took charge of business interests 
there that had been acquired by his brother. 
Subsequently he was engaged in business in 
Newark till 1875, when he retired. In 
1862-65 he was Assistant Quartermaster- 
General with the rank of Major at Camp 
Frelingluiysen, the Newark rendezvous for 
troops, and during the war he rendered 
valuable service to the State and its soldiers 
both at the Camp and at the front. In 
1889 President Harrison appointed him 
L^nited States Consul at Sonneberg, the sec- 
ond largest consulate in Germany, with 
consular agencies at Saxe-Coburg-Gotha 
and at Bamberg, Bavaria, subordinate to it. 
Owing to the illness of Mrs. Halsey he re- 



signed this post on January i, 1894, and 
tlien spent several months in European 
travel with his family. On his return to 
Newark, Mr. Halsey served as a director 
in several financial institutions and became 
interested in a number of business enter- 
prises. Throughout his life the social fea- 
ture predominated. He was exceedingly 
hospitable and companionable, and had a 
big heart that was easily touched to sym- 
pathetic action by a tale of suffering or 
misfortune. 

On September 13, 1852 he married 
Frances Lothrop Day, daughter of Charles 
Thompson Day, who died in 1866, leaving 
a son, Charles Day Halsey, now of New 
York. On November 3, 1875, he married 
Ella Louise Price, daughter of Jesse Dick- 
inson and Harriet Eliza (Woodruff) Price, 
and great-granddaughter of Matthias Oark, 
a soldier of the Revolution, whose tomb- 
stone is in the churchyard of the First Pres- 
byterian Church at Westfield, N. J. Mrs. 
Halsey and a daughter by this marriage, 
Mrs. Arthur J. Slade, of New York, sur- 
vived him. He died at his home in New- 
ark on June 12, 1906. 



GEORGE ROWLAND HOWE 



NEWARK 



GEORGE ROWLAND HOWE, man- 
ufacturer, is of English ancestry of 
the best blood. The first immigrant 
of the name from England was John How. 
He was the son of John How, Esq., of 
Hodenhull, Warwickshire, and was of the 
family of Lord Charles How, earl of Lan- 
caster, in the reign of Charles I. He was 
in Sudbur)-, Massachusetts, in 1639, and 
took the freeman's oath there in 1640. He 
was the first white man to settle in Marl- 
borough. Massachusetts, in 1657, and died 
there in 1687. While living at Sudbury, in 
1642, he was a selectman and the marshal 



of the town. His son, Thomas How, born 
in 1656, represented Marlborough in the 
General Court, was colonel in the militia, 
and active in the early Indian wars. 

The family name in England had been 
spelled How, and that mode of orthography 
was retained in this country until it was 
changed, in the fifth generation, by Bezaleel 
Howe, second, who added a final e to the 
name, and that manner of writing it has 
since been adopted by all his descendants. 
Bezaleel Howe, second of the name, was 
born in 1755 and enlisted in the New 
Hampshire line in the continental army just 



I04 



BIOGRAPHICAL CYCLOPEDIA 



before the battle of Bunker Hill. He served 
throughout the entire war and remained in 
the regular army for fourteen years after 
peace was declared. For six years he served 
under General Anthony Wayne and retired 
with the rank of major. During the last 
year of the war he served in Washington's 
bodyguard as auxiliary lieutenant, and was 
a member of the commander-in-chief's mil- 
itary family during most of this time. As 
captain, at the close of the struggle he com- 
manded the escort which took General 
Washington's papers and personal effects 
to Mount Vernon. The original letter of 
instructions for the march has been deposit- 
ed among the archives of the New Jersey 
Historical Society in Newark. 

John Moffat Howe, the father of George 
R. Howe and son of Bezaleel Howe, of 
Revolutionary times, was a physician and a 
clergyman. He was a resident of the City 
of Passaic, Passaic County, New Jersey, 
and was influential in changing a Jersey 
Dutch village into a thriving residential 
community, being largely and honorably 
identified with its material affairs, and also 
with its educational interests. At this time 
wise men were needed to control the senti- 
ment of the community and give to it tone 
and character. This he did in an eminent 
degree, and by his example and efforts aid- 
ed materially in making the town what it 
now is. The bent of his mind and his tem- 
perament led him to take a deep interest in 
the development of the methods adopted for 
the education of the youth of the city, and 
to his exertions is largely due the present 
admirable system of public instruction in 
Passaic. His qualifications in this direction 
were recognized by Governor Marcus L. 
Ward, who, in 1866, appointed him one of 
the members of the first State Board of Ed- 
ucation, which position he held until 1884. 
Dr. Howe was the first railroad commuter 
from Passaic. 

On his mother's side George R. Howe is 
descended from two prominent New Eng- 
land families, Barnard and Jenkins. 
Through one of them he traces his geneal- 



ogy to Peter Jenkins, who settled in Massa- 
chusetts as early as 1635. 

George Rowland Howe was born Octo- 
ber 21, 1847, in New York City. He was ed- 
ucated in private schools and in the Passaic 
Academy. After receiving a thorough 
preparation he entered the New York Uni- 
versity as a special course student, but did 
not graduate. Leaving college in 1866, he 
entered the employ of Carter, Hale & Co., 
a very large jewelry manufacturing estab- 
lishment in Newark, founded in 1841 by 
Aaron Carter. For ten years he remained 
with this company, and so conducted him- 
self as to win the entire confidence of his 
employers. In 1876 he was invited to be- 
come a member of the firm, which is now 
conducted under the title of Carter, Howe 
& Co. The firm is one of the oldest and 
most reliable in the country, and Mr. Howe, 
whose position in the establishment for 
many years has been that of manager of the 
factory, has aided largely in accomplishing 
this result. 

]\Ir. Howe is faithful to the political or- 
ganization whose principles he approves, 
but is by no means servile in obedience to 
its mandates, He is an independent think- 
er ; and while he is an enthusiastic support- 
er of the Republican party he serves it be- 
cause he is a true patriot and believes that 
through its success the best good for his 
country will be obtained. He has never 
filled any political office and has never been 
ambitious for such honors. His tastes and 
inclinations do not lead him into the arena 
as a candidate. He was, however, a mem- 
ber for five years of the board of education 
of East Orange, where he resides. He is 
now a member and has been president of 
the Newark Young Men's Christian Asso- 
ciation, a member and director of the New 
Jersey Society of the Sons of the American 
Revolution, vice president of the New Jer- 
sey Historical Society, a trustee of the 
Washington Headquarters Association of 
Morristown, and a member of the Essex 
Club of Newark, the New Jersey Society 
of Founders and Patriots of America, the 



BIOGRAPHICAL CYCLOPEDIA 



105 



New England Society of the Oranges, and 
the Republican Club of East Orange. He 
is treasurer of the board of trustees of The 
Newark Technical School and on May 26, 
1908, was appointed by Governor Fort a 
member of the Commission on Industrial 
Education, to suggest to the Governor and 
legislature methods to supply deficiencies in 
our present educational system. 

Mr. Howe is a member and ruling elder 
of the First Presbyterian Church of East 
Orange. His support has always been given 
to the right, and in whatever position he 



may have been placed he has influenced all 
who have come within the circle of his con- 
trol. The many employees of the large es- 
tablishment under his management have 
felt his masterful desire to aid them in at- 
taining those acquirements which lead to 
high and noble lives. 

He married June 11, 1879, in Homer, 
New York, Louisa Anna Barber, youngest 
daughter of Paris and Jane (Eno) Barber. 
Two children have been born to this mar- 
riage : Herbert Barber Howe and Ruth 
Eno Howe. 



WILLIAM GREENFIELD 

NEWARK 



WILLIAM GREENFIELD, whose 
personal energy and professional 
ability have won him an acknowledged 
standing at the New Jersey bar, was born 
in New York City, January i, 1875. ^^^ 
is the son of Louis A. and Fannie Green- 
field. He received his education in the pub- 
lic schools of his native city and began life 
at an early age by taking up the trade of 
tinsmith, at which he remained for a per- 
iod of two years. The work, however, was 
not congenial and he entered the printer's 
trade as a pressman, in which capacity he 
served for the following ten years. He then 
embarked in the milk business in the City 
of Newark and then in the dairy business, 
establishing a milk route in New York City , 
and wliile he carried on this enterprise he 
read law in the office of Judge Otto A. 
Rosalsky, of New York. Shortly after- 
ward he returned to the printer's trade, at 
the same time attending the night sessions 
of the New York Law Sciiool, from which 
institution he was graduated in 1899. He 
was admitted to the bar of New Jersey as 
an attorney in November of that year and 
at once began the practice of his profession, 
although he continued to work at the print- 
ing trade until January, 1900, when he 



opened an office at his residence, 42 Thir- 
teenth Avenue, in Newark. In the follow- 
ing June he removed his office to the Globe 
Building at 800 Broad Street, that city, 
where he has since remained. 

It is interesting to note in this connection 
that Mr. Greenfield entered upon the prac- 
tice of law with a capital of four dollars, 
and it speaks well for his energy and talents 
that he has, since that time, not only ac- 
quired repute and standing as an able attor- 
ney but has prospered in a material way, 
being the owner of his own home and of an 
apartment house in Newark. His practice, 
which has steadily grown to large and im- 
portant proportions, consists mostly of 
court work, a specialty being made of the 
pleading of cases at the bar, in which re- 
spect Mr. Greenfield has been most suc- 
cessful. He is an eloquent and convincing 
orator, strong in argument and forcible in 
expression. He is distingui.shed for the 
care with which lie prepares his causes for 
trial and for the fidelity and intelligence 
with which he guards his clients' interests. 
That he has achieved prominence and pres- 
tige in his profession is best shown by the 
fact that he is general counsel for such con- 
cerns as the Mercer Realty Company, the 



io6 



BIOGRAPHICAL CYCLOPEDIA 



Newark and Suburban Realty Company, 
the Workman's Realty Company, H. Kock 
& Co., M. Zimmermann & Co. and the 
Christian Schmitt Furniture Company. In 
politics he is a Republican and very active 
in the campaign work of his party. He is 
president of the Hebrew Republican League 
of Essex County and of the Hebrew Re- 
publican Club of the Third Ward of New- 
ark. He is a Hebrew in his religious faith 
and is a member of the Beth Israel Hospi- 



tal and several charitable organizations. He 
holds membership and exercises influence in 
New Jersey Lodge No. 38, Order of Brith 
Abraham and professionally represents the 
City Hall Building and Loan Association 
and the Third Ward Building and Loan 
Association. He married June 19, 1901, 
Sadie Cohn, daughter of God fried Cohn. 
To this marriage two children have been 
born, namely, Harold, born July 6, 1904, 
and Norma Lydia, born July 4, 1907. 



GILBERT 

JERSEY 

GILBERT COLLINS, Justice of the 
Supreme Court of New Jersey from 
March 8th, 1897 until 1903, when he 
resigned to re-enter the practice of law, was 
born in Stonington, New London County, 
Connecticut, August 26, 1846, and is a de- 
scendant of an old English family which 
originally came from Kent, England. His 
great-great-grandparents were Daniel Col- 
lins and Alice Pell. His great-grandfather, 
Daniel Collins (1732-1819), of Stonington, 
served in the Revolutionary War, and ac- 
cording to existing records was First Lieu- 
tenant in the First Regiment Connecticut 
line, formation of 1777; and it is also 
known that he was in service from 1775. 
He married Anne Potter. His son, Gilbert 
(1789-1865), grandfather of the present 
Gilbert Collins, served several terms in the 
Connecticut Legislature. His wife was 
Prudence Frink. Judge Collins' father, 
Daniel Prentice Collins (born in 1813, died 
in 1862), was a manufacturer in Stoning- 
ton throughout his life; he also had busi- 
ness relations in Jersey City, and on this 
account his son eventually made choice of 
that city as his field of labor, and his home. 
His mother, Sarah R., was a descendant of 
the Wells family of Connecticut. 

Judge Collins was prepared for Yale Col- 
lege, but the death of his father changed his 



COLLINS 

CITY 

purpose. The family, which consisted of 
his mother and one sister, removed to Jer- 
sey City, in 1863, and in 1865 he there en- 
tered the law office of Jonathan Dixon, 
now deceased and former justice of 
the Supreme Court of New Jersey. He 
was admitted to the bar as an attorney in 
February, 1869, and as a counselor in Feb- 
ruary, 1872. On January i, 1870, he be- 
came a partner of Mr. Dixon and continued 
in that relationship until that gentleman 
was elevated to the bench in April, 1875. 
He afterward formed a partnership with 
Charles L. Corbin, one of New Jersey's 
most distinguished lawyers. In 1881 Wil- 
liam H. Corbin was admitted as a member 
of the firm, which contiuned under the style 
of Collins & Corbin till March 8, 1897, 
when Mr. Collins was appointed a Justice 
of the Supreme Court of New Jersey, 
which position he held from March 8, 1897 
until 1903, when he resigned and reengaged 
in the practice of law with his former part- 
ners, under the firm name of Collins & 
Corbin. 

Judge Collins is, in politics, a Republi- 
can ; he has been nominated by his party for 
Slate Senator (1880) once and for Con- 
gress twice (1882 and 1888). For two 
years, from May, 1884, to May, 1886, he 





,r^o€t:..^ 



BIOGRAPHICAL CYCLOPEDIA 



107 



served as Mayor of Jersey City, having 
been elected by a combination of an inde- 
pendent organization of citizens with the 
RepubHcans. For five years previous to 
1893 he served as Qiairman of the Repub- 
Hcan County Committee, when he decHned 
a re-election. 

Jvme 2, 1870, he was married to Harriet 
Kingsbury Bush. Of their six children, 
two daughters survive. Their son, Walter 



Collins, was educated at Columbia Univers- 
ity, New York, and Williams College, Mas- 
sachusetts. He studied law in his father's 
office, was admitted to the bar in 1896, and 
was a practicing lawyer in Jersey City. He 
died November 11, 1900. 

Judge Collins is a member of the LTnion 
League and Palma clubs of Jersey City, and 
of the New Jersey Society of the Sons of 
the Revolution. 



OSCAR BROMLEY MOCKRIDGE 

NEWARK 



OSCAR BROMLEY MOCKRIDGE, 
long prominent in the hardware 
trade of Newark, New Jersey, and closely 
identified with the banking interests of that 
city, was born in Newark, June 10, 1844. 
He is the son of Abraham Mockridge and 
Sarah Emmons Ward, and comes of an old 
and honored New Jersey family. His fath- 
er, who was bom in March, 1802, and died 
in 1873, ^^'3s a member of the firm of Mock- 
ridge & Francis, hardware dealers, of New- 
ark, an enterprise established in 1835. 

The son received his education in Nathan 
Hedges' private school and the public 
schools of his native city. In 1861 he en- 
tered the service of his father, applying 
himself to the duties assigned him and ac- 
quiring a thoroughly practical knowledge of 
the hardware business, a calling for which 
he was peculiarly adapted and in which he 
was destined to win high distinction as one 
of its ablest and most successful representa- 
tives. He was admitted to the firm in 1868, 
the style of the concern being changed at 
that time to Mockridge & Son, under which 
name it was subsequently carried on, Mr. 
Mockridge remaining identified with the en- 
terprise until 1899, the business at that per- 
iod being the oldest continuous undertaking 
of its class in the city of Newark. As a 
man of affairs, Mr. Mockridge was ably 
equipped. His judgment was sound even 



as a young man, and his foresight keen and 
unerring. His methods were those of the 
old school, honest and fair, and he conduct- 
ed his business in a progressive and ener- 
getic manner that gained for the house a 
wide prestige and an enviable repute. 

Withdrawing from the business in 1899, 
Mr. Mockridge became treasurer of the Se- 
curity Savings Bank of Newark, an institu- 
tion that is notable as the second largest 
savings bank in its city. As treasurer of 
the institution in question, Mr. Mockridge 
has performed his functions with an ability 
that is most pronounced and his knowledge 
of banking has stood him in good stead in 
this connection. He still retains the treas- 
urcship of the Security Savings Bank and 
in that capacity has strengthened the en- 
terprise and contributed in no small degree 
to the building up of its steadily increasing 
business. He has been associated with 
banking in Newark for more than thirty 
years, having been throughout that period a 
director of the Manufacturers' National 
Bank of that city. 

He has never taken an active part in poli- 
tics, neither seeking nor holding public of- 
fice, and preferring to concentrate all his ef- 
forts upon his personal affairs. At the same 
time, he is public spirited to a notable de- 
gree and is willing at all times to unite in 



io8 



BIOGRAPHICAL CYCLOPEDIA 



any movement calculated to advance the 
common good or promote the material wel- 
fare of the community at large. He is one 
of the the original members of the North 
End Club, of Newark, and a popular man in 
that organization. He married August 19, 
1873, Caroline B. Tichenor, of Newark. 



They are the parents of one child, Dr. Os- 
car A. Mockridge, who was born March 29, 
1885, and who is now a well-known and 
successful physician in Newark, where he 
has established a large and important prac- 
tice and gained for himself a high standing 
in his chosen profession. 



ARTHUR H. MITCHELL 

EAST ORANGE 



ARTHUR H. MITCHELL, one of the 
youngest lawyers of the New Jersey 
bar, was born in East Orange, August 11, 
1877. He is the son of Aaron P. and Anna 
Elizabeth (Dodd) Mitchell. Educated in 
the Newark Academy, from which institu- 
tion he was graduated in 1896, he then 
went to Princeton University, being gradu- 
ated from that institution in 1900. Taking 
up the study of law in the New York Law 
School, he received the degree of Bachelor 
of Laws in 1902. He was admitted to prac- 
tice at the bar of New Jersey as an attorney 
in 1903, and as a counselor-at-law in 1907. 
He has already successfully established 



himself, and is recognized as one of the 
rising young men in the legal profession. 
He is counsel for the East Orange Bank. 
A Republican in politics, is a member of 
the Republican Club of East Orange and in 
1905 and 1906 was a member of the East 
Orange City Council. He is also a member 
of the Cap and Gown Club of Princeton, 
the Princeton Club of New York, the 
Essex Club of Newark, New Jersey, and 
Hope Lodge No. 124, Free and Accepted 
Masons. He belongs to the First Con- 
gregational Church of East Orange. He 
married September 17, 1907, Bertha K. 
Wood. 



RUSSELL M. EVERETT 



NEWARK 



RUSSELL M. EVERETT was born in 
Boston, Massachusetts, July 12, 
1870. He was educated in Phillips Andov- 
er Academy, where he prepared for college. 
He entered Dartmouth College and was 
graduated therefrom in 1891. As a student 
he displayed ability of a high order and 
was especially proficient in mathematics 
and physics. Coming to New Jersey soon 
after his graduation, he taught in public 
and preparatory schools for some time. In 
1897 he located in Newark, where he en- 
tered the employment of Drake & Co., 



a firm of patent solicitors of long standing. 
He also engaged in the study of law, mak- 
ing a specialty of the law of patents, trade 
marks and copy-rights, and in 1902 was 
admitted to the bar, practicing for Drake 
& Co. until 1905, when he opened an of- 
fice for himself at 788 Broad Street, New- 
ark. He is a member of the Lawyers Club 
and resides in the Forest Hill section of 
Newark. Politically he is a member of the 
Republican party, and was elected as one of 
the members of the Essex County delega- 
tion to the Assembly of 1906. 



BIOGRAPHICAL CYCLOPEDIA 



109 



GEORGE HENRY GLEESON 

ARLINGTON 



GEORGE HENRY GLEESON, one 
of the most promising and success- 
ful younger members of the New Jersey 
bar, was born in Harrison, New Jersey, 
April 4, 1880. He is the son of Thomas E. 
Gleeson and Alice Morrisey, and is descend- 
ed from old and reputable ancestral stock 
on both sides. He received his education in 
Seton Hall College, South Orange, after- 
ward entering the New York Law School, 
from which latter institution he was gradu- 
ated in the class of 1905. Meantime he had 
read law in the office of the Honorable 
Thomas J. Lintott, of Newark, and was ad- 
mitted to the bar of New Jersey as an attor- 
ney in November, 1905, and as a counsellor 
in November, 1908. He then formed a 
partnership with Charles Jones, under the 
style of Jones & Gleeson, with offices on 
Broad street in Newark, rapidly establish- 
ing an excellent practice and gaining repute 
as an able young lawyer, in whose hands 



important litigation might be safely placed, 
with every assurance of careful and intelli- 
gent handling. He also has an office in 
Harrison. 

Mr. Gleeson's home is in Arlington, New 
Jersey, where he is regarded as a represent- 
ative citizen who has the esteem and confi- 
dence of all who know him. He is a believ- 
er in the principles of the Democratic party 
and has always taken an active part in the 
camjiaign work of that organization, being 
a popular member of the Robert Davis As- 
sociation, of Jersey City. He is a Roman 
Catholic in his religious faith and a gentle- 
man of high culture, intellectual attain- 
ments, and warm sympathies. He holds 
membership in the Knights of Columbus 
and in Kearney Lodge No. 1050, Benevo- 
lent and Protective Order of Elks. He 
married, October 10, 1906, Mary K. Quinn, 
daughter of Edward H. Quinn, of New- 
ark. 



FOSTER M. VOORHEES 

ELIZABETH 



FOSTER M. VOORHEES, Governor 
of New Jersey, in 1899, was born in 
Clinton, New Jersey, November 5, 1856. 
His ancestors came from Holland about 
1660, and settled on Long Island. He is a 
son of Nathaniel ^\^ and Naomi (Leigh) 
Voorhees. His father, who was a well- 
known and widely respected citizen of New 
Jersey, was admitted to the bar of that State 
in 1854, but never practiced. 

Mr. Voorhees was graduated from Rut- 
gers College in 1876. He taught school for 
a year after his gratluation, and then began 
the study of law in the offices of Magie & 
Cross, of Elizabeth, .\dmittcd to the bar 
in June, 1880, and he at once began practice 



in Elizabeth, where he soon became one of 
the foremost members of the Union County 
bar. His political career began in 1888, 
when he was elected to the New Jersey As- 
sembly. He served with notable distinction 
in that body during the years 1888, 1889, 
and 1890. In the fall of 1893 he was elected 
to the State Senate from his county, and 
was re-elected in 1896. His record in the 
Senate added to his laurels as to ability, up- 
rightness, and statesmanship. In 1894 he 
was tendered the appointment of Circuit 
Court Judge by Governor Werts, and later 
Governor Griggs ofifered him a clerkship in 
the Court of Chancery. Mr. Voorhees de- 
clined both honors, as his large law practice 



no 



BIOGRAPHICAL CYCLOPEDIA 



and duty to his clients demanded his time. 
In the Assembly, in 1889 and 1890, he was 
the leader of his party, then in the minority, 
and was twice nominated for Speaker. In 
the Senate he was the majority leader in 
1895, 1896 and 1897. For five years he 
served as a member of the Elizabeth Board 
of Education. In that capacity he showed 
his keen interest in the education of the 
youth of his state, and to his efforts was 
due, to a very large extent, the efficiency of 
the public schools of Elizabeth. When the 



State Senate was organized in 1898, Mr. 
V^oorhees was unanimously chosen Presi- 
dent of that body. In that position he 
served until Governor Griggs accepted the 
Attorney-Generalship in the Cabinet of 
President McKinley, when he succeeded 
him in the office of Chief Executive of the 
State. Governor Voorhees received the Re- 
publican nomination to succeed himself as 
Governor, and was elected for a full term, 
in November, 1898. He was inaugurated 
in January, 1899. 



FREDERICK TYSOE FEAREY 

NEWARK 



IT is said that nothing succeeds liks suc- 
cess, and that seems to be the life story 
of Frederick Tysoe Fearey, who was born 
in Newark, New Jersey, September 18, 
1848. His parents were Isaac Fearey and 
Alice Tysoe. They came to the United 
states from Stevington, Bedfordshire, Eng- 
land, a farming section. They educated their 
son in the public schools and business col- 
leges of his native city. Young Fearey spent 
the earlier years of his business career rep- 
resenting the Pennsylvania Railroad, the 
Central Railroad of New Jersey, the 
Erie Railroad and the Baltimore & Ohio 
Railroad, as their city passenger agent, for a 
period of ten years. He entered the em- 
ployment of the Central Railroad of New 
Jersey in its general passenger department 
in New York City in 1869. 

During his railroad service, Mr. Fearey 
became deeply interested in all railroad 
work, and analagous business, and his mind 
was ever on the alert for developments in 
telegraph, electric burglar alarms and mes- 
senger service ; and he took a prominent 
part in the organization of companies in 
these lines. Later he paid special attention 
to the development of the telephone busi- 
ness, and was one of the first to organize 
and promote that interest in Essex County. 



During 1888 and 1889 he made a study of 
rail fastenings, as applied to steam rail- 
roads, and the result was the securing of 
several patents and the formation of a com- 
pany under the laws of the State of New 
Jersey, known as the Continuous Rail Joint 
Company of America, Mr. Fearey being 
one of its chief executive officers. The 
products of this company were introduced 
and successfully used throughout the 
United States, and received the highest 
awards at Paris, 1900; Buffalo, 1901 and 
St. Louis, 1904. In 1905 two other com- 
panies were united with the Continuous 
Company, and a new organization formed 
under the laws of the State of New York, 
known as The Rail Joint Company. Mr. 
Fearey was chosen president, with offices 
at No. 29 West Thirty-fourth street. New 
York City. The business of the company 
has grown enormously, the output during 
the past year having been in excess of any 
previous year, which is an indication of the 
extent to which improved rail joints, of the 
base-supporting type, which are manufac- 
tured exclusively by this company, are re- 
placing the old time angle bars. The total 
quantity of joints shipped by this company 
up to date is more than sufficient to equip 
a railroad that would encircle the earth, and 



BIOGRAPHICAL CYCLOPEDIA 



III 



the company is now enjoying a large and 
successful business. 

The formation of the telephone compan- 
ies and his prominent work in the other 
lines called for great activity on the part of 
Mr. Fearey, and he became one of the best 
known men in the county, while his techni- 
cal knowledge in the lines mentioned was 
considered most remarkable. Coupled with 
this was the faculty of intense application 
to the work in hand, and the consequence 
was that everything Mr. Fearey touched 
seemed full of life. His vigorous health 
has enabled him to thoroughly attend to all 
the work in hand without any diminution of 
natural force or vigor. 

Mr. Fearey, in 1896, married Bertha 
Louise Kittel, of New York City. Two 



children have blessed the union, Marie Lou- 
ise and Geraldine Kittel. They reside at the 
family home at East Orange, New Jersey. 
Mr. Fearey has never occupied political of- 
fice, but has been an earnest and energetic 
Republican, serving in the clubs of that or- 
ganization. He is a member of the New 
Jersey Historical Society, the Newark 
Board of Trade, the Republican Club of 
East Orange, the Essex Club of Newark, 
the Newark Artists Club, the Arsdale Golf 
Club, the Municipal Art League, the Or- 
ange Musical Art Society, the Civics Socie- 
ty of Orange, and the National Arts Club 
and Metropolitan Museum of Art of New 
York City. He is also a member and one 
of the Board of Trustees of the First Bap- 
tist Church of Newark. 



WILLIAM BUERMANN 

NEWARK 



WILLIAM BUERMANN, M. D., one 
of the younger and most promis- 
ing citizens and physicians of Newark, was 
born in that city February 23, 1875. ^^ '^ 
a grandson of Wilhelm Buermann and a 
son of August Buermann, Sr. His father 
was born in Sattenhausen near Gottingen, 
Hanover, Germany, November 4, 1842. He 
settled in Newark in 1863 and enlisted as a 
private in the Ninth Regiment of New Jer- 
sey Volunteers, serving in the Civil War in 
the command of Major General John M. 
Schofield. At the close of the war he re- 
turned to Newark, became a pioneer in the 
manufacture of saddlery hardware, and 
built up a business favorably known 
throughout the United States and in for- 
eign countries. Subsequently he made 
large investments in real estate, and was 
among the first to develop the Clinton Hill 
district of Newark, now one of the most 
fashionable residential sections of that city. 
Dr. Buermann's mother was Margaretha 
Koenig, born June 24, 1844, a daughter of 



Alichael Koenig, who held the office of 
biirgermeister of Elbersheim, in Wiirttem- 
berg, Germany, for thirty-three years. 

Dr. Buermann received a public school 
education in Newark, and, after being grad- 
uated from the classical department of the 
High School in 1893, he entered the College 
of Physicians and Surgeons — the Medical 
Department of Columbia University — in 
New York City, and was graduated there- 
from in 1896, the year he attained his ma- 
jority. Immediately after graduation he 
engaged for a time in post-graduate work 
in New York. During 1898-1903 he was 
chief of the surgical clinic, of the Newark 
City Dispensary. He also became attending 
physician to the Bethany Home for the 
Aged in Irvington, New Jersey. Since 
April, 1907, he has been engaged in general 
practice in Newark. He married in Roselle 
Park, New Jersey, February 19, 1900, Em- 
ma Amelia Bender, daughter of John C. 
Bender, a native of Wiirttemberg, Ger- 
many, and Josephine M. Peters, born in 



112 



BIOGRAPHICAL CYCLOPEDIA 



New York City. The issue of this marriage 
is Arthur William Buermann, born Decem- 
ber 1 6, 1902. 

Despite close and contant professional 
study and congenial scientific investigation, 
Dr. Buermann has found time to indulge in 
many recreative diversions. Professionally 
he is a member of the New Jersey State and 
Essex County Medical Societies and the 
American Medical Association; ex-Presi- 
dent of the Newark Medical League ; medi- 
cal examiner for the National Life Insur- 
ance Company; Carteret Tent No. 3, 
Knights of the Maccabees ; and Newark 
City Camp, Modern Woodmen of America ; 
and medical director of Salaam Temple, 
Ancient Arabic Order of Nobles of the 
Mystic Shrine. Socially he is an ex-presi- 
dent of the High School Alumni Associa- 
tion and a member of the Wednesday, Gar- 
field and New Jersey Auto and Motor Clubs 
of the Eintracht-Verein, and The Ar- 
tist's Club. His fraternal associations, be- 
sides those mentioned, comprise St. John's 



Lodge, No. I Free and Accepted Masons; 
Union Chapter of Royal Arch Masons ; the 
Ancient Accepted Scotish Rite Thirty-sec- 
ond degree, and Anthony Wayne Council, 
Junior Order of American Mechanics. 

In more public afl'airs, he is a member 01 
the Newark Board of Trade ; vice-Presi- 
dent of the Clinton Trust Company ; and 
President of the Clinton Hill Improvement 
Association. He is also a Trustee and 
President of the Men's League of the Clin- 
ton Avenue Baptist Church. Personally, 
Dr. Buermann is easy of approach, affable 
in conversation, an enthusiast in the phe- 
nomenal developments in medical and sur- 
gical practice of the last few years, and an 
earnest worker in the causes of civic im- 
provements and social betterments. Before 
entering the medical profession, he was 
prominent in musical circles, taking part in 
many entertainments about his own town 
and was organist of the First German Bap- 
tist Church for five years. 



WALTER S. NICHOLS 

NEWARK 



WALTER S. NICHOLS is a repre- 
sentative of many of the oldest and 
best families in New Jersey. His ancestors 
were distinguished in the early history of 
Newark and classed among its most influ- 
ential and distinguished citizens. The name 
Nichols is first mentioned in the Newark 
town records on the third day of December, 
1669, a little more than three years after the 
first settlement of the town. The notice is 
very brief and not much to the point, giving 
no information as to the subject matter of 
the titles of which mention is made. It 
was agreed, so says the record, "the town 
assembled, that the letter prepared should 
be copyied out and sent to Col. Nicholls in 
the Town's behalf — and signed by Mr. 
Treat in the name of the Town." This 



Colonel Nicholls was undoubtedly the Gov- 
ernor who was appointed in 1664 by the 
Duke of York, over the lands granted to 
him by King Charles II., and who, under 
his commission, undertook to give titles to 
lands in New Jersey although the duke had 
conveyed the whole of that Province to 
Lord Berkeley and Sir George Carteret 
prior to Nicholl's commission as Governor. 
Genealogical investigations indicate an old- 
er brother of this turbulent officer who set- 
tled in Connecticut as the probable ancestor 
of the Nichols family in Newark. 

The next mention of a Nichols is in 
1775, when Robert Nichols is named as one 
of three persons appointed to treat with 
Captain Riggs concerning "some disputed 
lands." In 1815 Isaac Nichols, the grand- 



BIOGRAPHICAL CYCLOPEDIA 



"3 



father of Walter S. Nichols, appears prom- 
inently in the business of the town as one 
of its leaders, and from that time for half 
a century he was identified with all the in- 
terests of Newark, both public and private. 
He was of uncommon sagacity, wise and 
prudent, thoughtful and considerate in all 
his undertakings. He was very frequently 
called upon to act in many fiduciary capaci- 
ties, as executor, administrator, trustee, and 
guardian. 

Walter S. Nichols was born in Newark, 
November 23, 1841, and is the son of Al- 
exander McWhorter Nichols and Hannah 
Riggs Ward. His paternal grandfather was 
Isaac Nichols, already mentioned, and his 
maternal grandfather was Caleb S. Ward, 
a descendant of one of the original settlers 
of Newark. He is the great-grandson of 
Captain Robert Nichols, of the Second 
Regiment of New Jersey militia, and of 
Deacon Joseph Davis, wagon master in the 
Essex County militia, both of whom served 
with credit in the Revolutionary Army. He 
is also a descendant of many of the first and 
early settlers of Newark, whose names will 
be recognized at once by any student of the 
history of that town, such as Riggs, Ward, 
Swaine, Farrand, Johnson, Lawrence, 
Bruen, and Davis. His lineal descent from 
several noble families of England, includ- 
ing the Clintons, Montgomeries, and Beau- 
champs, is undoubted, as is also his descent 
through Sir William Booth from the Saxon, 
Norman and Scottish Kings of England, 
the Carlovingian rulers of France, and the 
early Emperors of Germany. Mr. Nichols 
is too good a republican to lay any stress or 
claim any more respect on account of these 
genealogies, but as these facts seem to be 
within the scope of this publication his biog- 
rapher feels in duty bound to state them. 

Mr. Nichols was prepared for college in 
the Newark Wesleyan Institute. He enter- 
ed Princeton University in i860 and was 
graduated in 1863, receiving the degree of 
A. M. from that institution in 1866. After 
graduation he entered the office of the Hon- 
orable Joseph P. Bradley, late Associate 



Justice of the Supreme Court, as a student 
at law, but has never practiced diat pro- 
fession. Soon after this he became asso- 
ciated with C. C. Hine, now dead, in the 
business of publication of insurance litera- 
ture in the City of New York. This led to 
his adoption of a new and rather untried 
profession, that of consulting mathema- 
tician and legal adviser of various corporate 
and other business interests on insurance 
matters, and as editor of several works on 
the law of insurance, contracts, and agents, 
and of the Insurance Lazv Journal and the 
Insurance Monitor. This he has followed 
assiduously and successfully for the last 
thirty years, and has acquired in it a reputa- 
tion known and recognized all over the re- 
public. 

He is a member and has been one of the 
directors for several years of the New Jer- 
sey Society of the Sons of the American 
Revolution and is also a member of the 
New Jersey Historical Society. He is now 
and for many years has been President of 
the Board of Trustees of the old historic 
First Presbyterian Church of Newark, the 
oldest church organization of that denom- 
ination in the State. 

He is a director in the old Newark Fire 
Insurance Company, and a member of the 
American Mathematical Society, and has 
been one of the counsel and mathematical 
examiners of the Acturial Society of 
America of which he is a fellow and a large 
contributor to its proceedings. He is also 
a member of the American Association for 
the Advancement of Science and the Amer- 
ican Academy of Political and Social Sci- 
ence. In 1888 he was the American repre- 
sentative of the Acturial Society to the In- 
ternational Congress of Actuaries in Lon- 
don, of which he is also a member. 

Mr. Nichols possesses the virtues, but not 
any of the objectionable characteristics, of 
his Puritan ancestors. Broad and compre- 
hensive in his views on all subjects submit- 
ted to him, tenacious in his opinion, decided 
and firm in his judgment of men and meas- 
ures, he is nevertheless tolerant of the opin- 



114 



BIOGRAPHICAL CYCLOPEDIA 



ions of others, believing that it is the birth- 
right of freemen to exercise unchallenged 
private judgment in all important matters 
relating to human actions and human hap- 



piness. He is an important and influential 
member of society and wields a forceful 
mastery by the sheer force of his firm and 
decided character. 



BENJAMIN FRANKLIN HOWELL 

NEW BRUNSWICK 



BENJAMIN FRANKLIN HOWELL, 
.was born in Cumberland County, New 
Jersey, January 27, 1844, and is President 
of the People's National Bank of New 
Brunswick. He was Surrogate of Middle- 
sex county for ten years, from November, 
1882, until November, 1892. He served 
with the Twelfth New Jersey Volunteers 
throughout the Civil War. He came to 
South Amboy, where he entered business 
and continued his residence there until 



1882, when he was elected Surrogate and 
removed to New Brunswick. He served 
three years as a member of the Township 
Committee, and two years as Chosen Free- 
holder, during the last year of which he 
was Director of the Board. He is Director 
of the New Brunswick Savings Bank. In 
1892 he was a delegate to the Republican 
Convention in Minneapolis. He was elect- 
ed to the Sixty-first Congress for an eighth 
term. 



JAMES DOUGLASS ORTON 

NEWARK 



T'HE present picturesque borough of 
Caldwell, in Essex County, with the 
First and Second Mountains stretching 
along its eastern boundary and the Pas- 
saic river winding about its western and 
northern limits, was in its early days one 
of the noteworthy intellectual centres of 
New Jersey. It had been formed from 
Newark and Acquackanouck (the latter in 
Passaic County) in 1798, and its proximity 
to the county-seat of Essex, the Oranges, 
Bloomfield, and other nearby places made 
it an attractive location for residence when 
people from those more thickly settled 
sections desired to spread out to the moun- 
tain suburbs. 

It thus received a number of families 
from various quarters, became quite a cos- 



the business and professional training that 
would fit them for their life work. Wher- 
ever the sons and daughters of Caldwell 
were subsequently established, not one of 
them ever failed to extol the quiet, the dig- 
nity, and the culture of the pretty village 
among the mountains, and Caldwell, for 
its part, in this manner returned to larger 
and more pretentious communities goodly 
specimens of its native stock, of whom it 
had high reason to be proud. 

The names of many men who, born here, 
became identified elsewhere with the his- 
tory of the County and State, may be read- 
ily recalled. The Grover family, begin- 
ning with the Reverend Stephen Grover, 
who was pastor of the First Presbyterian 
Church here for nearly fifty years, and fol- 



mopolitan community, reared its youth to lowing with Stephen R. Grover, lawyer and 
the extent of its facilities, and then sent State Senator, and Lewis C. Grover, who 
them forth for the higher education and became counsel and ultimately president of 



BIOGRAPHICAL CYCLOPEDIA 



"5 



the Mutual Benefit Life Insurance Com- 
pany, at Newark ; George De Gran Moore, 
for many years Surrogate of the County; 
and the late President of United States, 
baptised Stephen Grover Cleveland, are 
deserving of special mention as natives of 
Caldwell. And, among "the good that 
came out" of the village, he who is the 
subject of the present sketch, by a long 
and honorable career, won a conspicuous 
place. 

The family name of Orton is supposed to 
be of Danish origin, meaning a steep, 
round hill. It is found as a surname in 
Norway at the present time, and has been 
a familiar name in England for several 
centuries. At Reresby, a little village near 
Leicester, there is an old church — St. 
Michael's — in which lie buried five mem- 
bers of the Orton family, among whom 
one, the Reverend John Orton, it is said, 
was greatly beloved for hi's "universal 
benevolence and charities." There were 
seven families of the name in England, 
whose existence was attested by armorial 
bearings, but to which one, the first of the 
name to come to America, belonged is not 
definitely known. It is believed, however, 
that he came from Leicester, and it is 
known for a certainty that one Thomas 
Orton came from England in 1640 and 
settled in Windsor, Conn. 

This Thomas Orton married in 1641 
Margaret Pratt ; lived in Windsor for four- 
teen years ; and then moved to Farming- 
ton, and was one of the original eighty- 
four settlers of that town. He had four 
children, one son and three daughters. 
The son, John, lived and died in Farm- 
ington. He was married three times. By 
his first wife he had a son and a daugh- 
ter; by his second wife, Hannah Orvis, 
two sons and two daughters. His third 
wife, Mary Tudor, of Windsor, survived 
him, and, five years after his death, mar- 
ried John Judson, of Woodbury, Conn., 
one of the signers of the original compact 
for the building of that town. 

John, the oldest son of John Orton and 



Hannah Orvis, (born about 1692), lived 
in Farmington till 1717, when he removed 
to Woodbury, married there, and had five 
children, two sons and three daughters, 
Samuel, the second son, was born in the 
old Orton homestead, which is still in the 
possession of the family and stands on 
ground which was a part of the tract orig- 
inally bought by John Orton when he set- 
tled in Woodbury, nearly two hundred 
years ago. Samuel was graduated from 
Yale College, in 1765 ; studied medicine in 
Woodbury ; married Ruth Judson, one of 
the family of Adoniram Judson, the fa- 
mous Baptist missionary to Burmah, In- 
dia, and had six sons (one of whom died 
in infancy) and two daughters. Each of 
his five surviving sons became a physician, 
after studying with the father. 

James Orton, one of the sons of Sam- 
uel, and father of the subject of this sketch, 
journeyed on horseback from Woodbury 
to Caldwell, New Jersey, about 1810, and 
in 1814 married Hester Maria, daughter 
of Nathaniel Douglass, of Hanover, New 
Jersey. On settling in Caldwell, Dr. Or- 
ton was the only physician for miles 
around, and soon became a welcome guest 
in most of the homes in that entire section, 
both because of his high professional and 
his inviting personal character. 

James Douglass Orton, his oldest son, 
was born in the Caldwell homestead, on 
December 19, 1822. He received his early 
education in Calvin Crane's School, and 
when thirteen years old went to Holt and 
Sargent's Academy in Montclair, then the 
best school in the neighborhood. For four 
years he walked the four miles between 
home and school twice daily through sum- 
mer and winter, and to this regular exer- 
cise he subsequently attributed his robust 
health and his passion for several forms 
of athletics. While attending school Mr. 
Orton had a strong desire to become a 
physician, but circumstances interferred 
with his plans, and it was decided that he 
should avail himself of an opportunity that 
was presented by the connection of an 



ii6 



BIOGRAPHICAL CYCLOPEDIA 



uncle, Marcus B. Douglass, with the State 
Bank of Newark, and learn the banking 
business. 

After working three years in the State 
Bank he became bookkeeper in the Newark 
Banking Company ; and later was appointed 
receiving-teller of the North River Bank of 
New York; and in 1849 was made paying- 
teller of the Ocean Bank, also of New 
York; and in the same year was recalled 
to the State Bank and given the post of 
cashier. In 1864 he organized the Second 
National Bank in Newark, was made its 
president, and held that office till a few 
weeks before his deatli. When he under- 
took the organization of this bank, all the 
capital stock, $300,000, was subscribed in 
less than three days, which circumstance, 
occurring amid some of the darkest days of 
the Civil War, most pleasingly attested the 
confidence the business community of New- 
ark had in Mr. Orton's integrity, ability, 
and judgment. 

Mr. Orton was a member of St. John's 
Lodge, No. I, Free and Accepted Masons, 
and of the Washington Association of Mor- 
ristown. For many years he held the of- 
fice of Senior Warden of Old Trinity 
Church, which he had attended regidarly 
from the time he settled in Newark. Dur- 
ing the Civil War he devoted all his spare 
time to ministering to the wants and con- 
tributing to the pleasures of the sick and 
wounded soldiers at the Ward General 



Hospital in Newark, where a younger 
brother. Dr. Samuel Henry Orton, was sta- 
tioned. He was actively identified with the 
varied interests of Newark for more than 
fifty years, and took a special pleasure in 
co-operating in the promotion of educa- 
tional movements, particularly such as con- 
cerned the youth of the city. 

He had a keen perception, a quick-acting 
mind, a ripe judgment, and, in financial 
matters, a combination of conservatism and 
positiveism that brought his opinions into 
constant demand. Well-proportioned in 
stature, erect as a soldier, with searching 
eyes, a beaming smile, a rapid and some- 
what swinging gait, and faultless attire, he 
was a man who would attract attention and 
friendship wherever placed. 

Mr. Orton was married, on January 14, 
1846, to his cousin, Esther Maria, daughter 
of Marcus B. Douglass, of Newark, and 
Nancy Gould, of Caldwell. Six children 
were born of this union — three sons and 
three daughters. One son, James Douglass 
Orton, of Newark, and two daughters, Mrs. 
Samuel Lord, of Orange, and Mrs. Frank 
Bliss Colton, of East Orange, are still 
(1909) living. On January 14, 1896, Mr. 
and Mrs. Orton celebrated their golden 
wedding in a manner never to be forgotten 
by any participants therein. Mr. Orton died 
at his residence in Newark on February 22, 
1902, in the eightieth year of his age. 



WILLIAM WILBERFORCE WINNER 



NEWARK 



WILLL\M WILBERFORCE WIN- 
NER was born in Pennington, New 
Jersey, November 10, 1863, of Puritan and 
Dutch stock. His father, William Wilber- 
force Winner, Sr., was a member of a 
Mercer county family and his mother was 
Virginia Bergen, of the Bergen family, of 
Manhattan. The late Reverend Isaac Win- 



ner, D. D., a pioneer in New Jersey Meth- 
odism, famous as a circuit rider and pulpit 
orator, a man known to have never suffer- 
ed defeat in debate, was the paternal 
grandfather, while on the maternal side he 
is descended from the Von Beregens 
(Bergens) of the original settlers of Man- 
hattan, now the great borough of Greater 



BIOGRAPHICAL CYCLOPEDIA 



117 



New York. The records show that Hans 
Von Beregen, originator of the family in 
America, settled on Manhattan island, his 
farm beginning at the Battery and extend- 
ing north as far as Cortlandt street. Other 
ancestors of Mr. Winner were among the 
first settlers of the region where the city 
of Philadelphia stands. 

Being a true scion of his stock, the tem- 
perament and character of Mr. Winner can 
be readily understood. He was persever- 
ing and patient, conscientious and faithful, 
honorable and truthful, strict and gener- 
ous, religious and broad-minded, sym- 
pathetic and firm. He despised a liar and 
abhored a hypocrite. He readily forgave 
an enemy, and would have sacrificed him- 
self for a friend. Mr. Winner began 
his school work at the age of five in an old- 
fashioned schoolhouse situated in a clear- 
ing in the woods at Dutch Neck, Mercer 
county, New Jersey. He left the farm at 
the age of ten, moving with his parents to 
Newark, New Jersey, where he received 
the advantages of a thorough education, 
elementary, academic, high school and busi- 
ness, followed by post-graduate courses in 
the subjects of higher education. His 
business alma mater was the Newark Busi- 
ness College of which he was the head and, 
interesting to note, of which he was the 
first graduate. Upon completing his course 
he was looked upon by the founder of the 
college. Professor Martin Mulvey, A. M., to 
be a promising young man with an especial 
aptitude for teaching. An opportunity to 
join the faculty was oflFered to him, which, 
after considerable deliberation, he accept- 
ed. He soon determined to devote his life 
to teaching, and his successful career as 
an educator is ample evidence of the wis- 
dom of his decision. During his quarter- 
century experience in school life he was an 
indefatigable worker, closely applying him- 
self to his work for si.x days and nights 
each week, for the full year of twelve 
months for the greater period of his time. 
This, he said, was part of the price of suc- 
cess, and by his long experience he was 



well fitted to point the way to aspiring 
youths, young men and women. 

Besides his extended services in the 
Newark Business College, he was for ten 
years, instructor in the Newark Academy, 
a college-preparatory school of national 
reputation, founded over a century and a 
quarter ago, and, in the same capacity ten 
years in the Dearborn Morgan (college- 
preparatory) school of Orange, New Jer- 
sey, five years in Seton Hall College, South 
Orange, New Jersey, three years in the 
East Orange Institute, and five years with 
the Orange Young Men's Christian Asso- 
ciation. 

Mr. Winner was a talented artist pen- 
man and engrosser, both in old style line 
work and up-to-date wash drawing and 
illuminating. For many years his com- 
bined classes in penmanship exceeded a 
thousand students each day, a record prob- 
ably not equaled by many, if any teachers 
of penmanship, during the past twenty-five 
years. Aside from his ability as a master 
in the art of teaching writing, he was an 
expert in the examination of disputed 
handwriting, having been recognized by the 
courts of New Jersey in this capacity for 
many years. 

His ripe experience as a school man, his 
technical and expert knowledge of the sub- 
jects embraced in an up-to-date business 
curriculum, his keen appreciation of the re- 
quirements of the business community, his 
tact and wisdom in his contact with the stu- 
dent body, his power to discipline, his lib- 
eral business policy, together with his un- 
faltering determination to produce finished 
students out of the ordinary, without re- 
gard to cost in energy, time and money, 
placed him foremost as a business educa- 
tor, and established for the Newark Busi- 
ness College an annual enrollment of fully 
six hundred students. Thorough instruc- 
tion, enforced discipline, and excellent re- 
sults became the salient features of this, 
Newark's leading busines school. 

Mr. Winner was twice married. He 
married first, in 1887, Anna Knox Can- 



ii8 



BIOGRAPHICAL CYCLOPEDIA 



niff, of Caldwell, New Jersey, by whom 
he had four children, three of whom are 
living. His second marriage was on July 
i6, 1901, to Myra L. Havens. Mrs. Win- 
ner was a worthy assistant to her husband 
in the management of the institution. She 
aided him most materially in all branches 
of the work and by her advice and through 
her counsel many of the advances were 
made. Although Mr. Winner died No- 
vember 3, 1907, the institution to which his 
business life was devoted still flourishes and 
is conducted upon the same advanced prin- 
ciples as prior to his death by Mrs. Win- 
ner, who has become principal of the in- 
stitution and its proprietor and manager. 

He was not much given to social life: 
his acquaintances were legion, his business 
friends many, his social friends few, but 
tried. The Knights of Pythias was the 
only secret order to which he belonged. 
He was a member of the National Com- 
mercial Teachers' Federation, the Eastern 
Commercial Teachers' Association, and the 
Private Commercial Schools Managers' 
Association. 

In reading he was particularly fond of 



history, biography and the sciences, while 
art appealed strongly to his tastes. He 
was a lover of nature, finding his greatest 
pleasure in getting near to "nature's heart." 
The ocean, the bay, the river, the woods, 
the mountains, the fields, the landscape, 
animal, and all plant life had an unfailing 
charm for him. Naturally his recreations 
were mostly found in wheeling, boating, 
fishing and traveling. He had a pro- 
nounced genius for construction and was 
never happier while away from business 
than when working with tools in carpentry, 
and the interior and exterior of his home 
abounds with evidences of his handiwork. 
By his death the cause of education in 
the State of New Jersey suffered a severe 
loss. His passing was mourned by thou- 
sands throughout the State, who during 
their earlier years were entrusted to his 
care, the majority of whom attribute their 
success in life to the early training and the 
care bestowed upon them by Mr. Winner. 
All of his former students bear testimony 
of his capabilities and have profited by the 
example of his beautiful life. 



ISAAC FIELD ROE 

NEWARK 



ISAAC FIELD ROE, manufacturer and 
jobber, who is prominently identified 
with the business interests of the City of 
Newark, was born in Hackettstown, New 
Jersey, being a son of George and Lizzie 
(Miller) Roe. His paternal grandparents 
were Nathaniel and Harriet (Shepard) 
Roe, and his great-grandparents were 
George and Margaret (Struble) Roe. His 
maternal grandparents were Jacob Baird 
and Elizabeth (Kline) Miller; his great- 
grandparents were Henry and Margaret 
(Baird) Miller. 

Mr. Roe received his education in Hack- 
ettstown and in Newark, and his first ex- 



perience in the business world was as a 
bank clerk in New York City, and subse- 
quently in connection with manufacturing 
interests in Newark. Since October 1893 
through his energy, progressiveness, and 
marked executive ability he has developed 
the firm of Roe & Conover of which he is 
the proprietor, until it is one of the most im- 
portant in that city, and one of the larg- 
est of its kind in New Jersey. For many 
years it was located at 200-202 Market 
street and 17-23 Mechanic street, New- 
ark, but finding its quarters too small to 
meet the needs of its rapidly increasing 
trade the entire business has been removed 





AlUu. 




BIOGRAPHICAL CYCLOPEDIA 



119 



to 206-210 Frelinghiiysen avenue, Newark, 
where it occupies space of nearly two city 
blocks, reached by trackage from railroads, 
whereupon have been erected substantial 
buildings for the economical concentration 
of the varied interests passing through the 
hands of the concern which is thus able to 
conduct its affairs in a manner which will 
revolutionize its former methods, as well 
as set a new pace in the trade in which it 
is engaged, giving greater promptness and 
greater satisfaction to its customers. The 
concern is engaged in the manufacturing 
and jobbing of general hardware, tools, 
machinery and supplies for mills, railways, 
machinists, power plants, steam fitters, 
plumbers, contractors and other mechanical 
trades. 

Outside of his business interests Mr. Roe 
has wide social and other connections, many 



of them being of important business char- 
acter. He is a State Director of the Pru- 
dential Insurance Company of America; 
Director of the Tronbound Trust Company : 
President of the Ninth Ward Building and 
Loan Association ; Vice President of the 
P)Oanl of Trade of Newark : President of 
the Shippers and Receivers Bureau of New- 
ark : and a member of the Advisory Dock 
and Meadow Reclamation Commission. He 
is also a member of the Builders Exchange, 
the Essex Qub of Newark, the Essex 
County Country Gub of Orange, the New 
York Athletic Club, the Forest Hill Field 
Club, the New Jersey Automobile and Mo- 
tor Club, and the Road Horse Association 
of New Jersey. He belongs to Kane Lodge, 
No. 55, Free and Accepted Masons, and 
Salaam Temple A. A. O. N. M. S. 



THOMAS GRIFFITH HAIGHT 

jERvSEY CITY 



THOMAS GRIFFITH HAIGHT, 
counselor-at-law, was born August 4, 
1879, at Colt's Neck, Monmouth County, 
New Jersey. His father was John Tyler 
Haight, a lawyer by profession, who was 
County Clerk of Monmouth County, a 
member of the Assembly, and County Col- 
lector of Monmouth County. His mother 
was Mary Louise Drummond Haight. His 
early education was obtained in the Free- 
hold Institute, Freehold, New Jersey, after 
which he entered Princeton University in 
the class of 1900 and remained until 1898. 
Taking up the study of law as a profes- 
sion he became a student under the direc- 
tion of Edmund Wilson, the present Attor- 
ney General of the State of New Jersey, 
and later attended the New York Law 
School, New York, from which he was 
graduated in June, 1900, with the degree of 
Bachelor of Law. He was admitted to the 
New Jersey state bar as attorney in Novem- 



ber, 1900, and became counselor at law in 
February, 1905. After admittance to the 
bar in 1901, he became the managing clerk 
for Queen & Tennant, counselors at law, 
of Jersey City, which position he held until 
the dissolution of the firm in January, 1905, 
when he formed a partnership with George 
G. Tennant, formerly of the firm of Queen 
& Tennant with whom he is still asso- 
ciated in the practice of law at Jersey City. 
From the time that he was admitted to the 
bar, by his sturdy self-reliance and attention 
to every detail connected with his profes- 
sion, he has built up a strong foundation foi 
future success. 

In politics Mr. Haight is a Democrat. He 
has served with the Second Troop, and 
Signal Corps of New Jersey for about sev- 
en years. He is popular as a club man, be- 
ing a member of the Jersey City Club, the 
Bergen Lodge of Masons, the Hudson 
County Bar Association of New Jersey, 



I20 



BIOGRAPHICAL CYCLOPEDIA 



the New Jersey State Bar Association, the 
Princeton Chib of New York, and the Can- 
non Ckib of Princeton. He is also connect- 
ed with the Organized Aid Association of 
New Jersey. He is a member of the Epis- 
copal Church. 

On October i8, 1905, he married Annie 
Crater, daughter of David S. and Annie 
Coombs Crater. David S. Crater has been 
Surrogate of Monmouth County for thirty 
years. Mr. Haight has a daughter, Annie 
Louise Haight. The Haight family is one 



of ancient English origin. The first to come 
to this country was Colonel Joseph Haight 
who, shortly after the Revolution, settled in 
New Jersey. He purchased a plantation at 
what was afterwards known as Colts Neck; 
the same home always remained in the 
Haight family. Mr. Haight's grandfather 
was Thomas G. Haight, one of the framers 
of the Constitution of the State of New 
Jersey in I8z^4. Mr. Haight, is a nephew of 
the late General Charles Haight, for many 
years Prosecutor of Monmouth county. 



LINDLEY M. GARRISON 

JERSEY CITY 



LINDLEY M. GARRISON, Vice Chan- 
cellor, was born in Camden, New 
Jersey, November 28, 1864, and is a son of 
the Reverend Joseph F. Garrison, D. D., 
and Elizabeth V. Garrison. He is a brother 
of Supreme Court Justice Charles G. Gar- 
rison. He attended school in Exeter, New 
Hampshire, spent one year in Harvard Col- 
lege, read law with Redding, Jones and 
Carson, of Philadelphia, and Thomas E. 
French, of Camden, and finished his legal 
studies in the University of Pennsylvania. 
He was admitted to the bar in Philadelphia 



in 1886, and to the bar of New Jersey as 
an attorney at the June term, 1888, and as 
a counselor at the June term, 1892. He 
commenced practice in New Jersey in Cam- 
den, in 1888, and removing from Camden 
to Jersey City in 1898, became a member 
of the firm of Garrison, McManus and En- 
right. This partnership dissolved when he 
accepted the office of Vice-Chancellor, ten- 
dered to him by Chancellor Magie. He took 
the oath of office on June 15, 1904, for a 
term of seven years. In politics he is a 
Democrat. His term will expire in 191 1. 



RICHARD W. BOOTH 

NUTLEY 



RICHARD W. BOOTH, County Col- 
lector for the County of Essex, New 
Jersey, was born in Franklin, now Nutley, 
New Jersey, August 13, 1859. He was the 
son of Enoch Booth who was a hotel pro- 
prietor of English descent. His mother was 
Mary M. Stager of a Holland family. He 
was educated in the public schools of his 
native place and before he was out of his 
teens was employed in a factory; after- 



wards becoming a clerk in a store to the 
proprietorship of which he succeeded and 
retained until 1900. He has always been 
a staunch Republican and is a member of 
the Republican Club of Nutley. 

Active in public alYairs he has been prom 
inent in public service for more than a quar- 
ter of a century. In 1881 when only twen- 
ty-one years of age he was elected clerk of 
Franklin Township, Essex County, and held 



BIOGRAPHICAL CYCLOPEDIA 



121 



that position for three years. For five years 
he was a member of the Town Committee 
of Franklin and during three of tiiis period 
was Chairman of the Committee. His 
resignation from this committee was tend- 
ered in order to enable him to accept elec- 
tion as a member of the Chosen Board of 
Freeholders, of which board he became one 
of the most active and efficient members. 
Interested in the subject of education, he 
was and is a member of the Board of Edu- 



cation of Nutley for six terms of three 
years each and was instrumental in placing 
the public schools on the high class basis 
they are to-day. Subsequently he became 
County Collector (Treasurer) for the 
County of Essex and in 1908 was serving 
his fourth term in that responsible position. 
He is a member of Nutley Lodge, Free and 
Accepted Masons, Royal Arcanum and the 
Republican Indian League. He married April 
2, 1885, Elizabeth R. Rushby of Franklin. 



MAX ANTHONY ERN 

NEWARK 



M; 



AX ANTHONY ERN, who ranks 
[conspicuously among the younger 
members of the New Jersey bar as an able 
and successful lawyer of more than ordi- 
nary attainments, was born in Newark, that 
State, July 18, 1878. He is the son of 
Ferdinand Ern and Marie Gunther, both 
old residents of Newark, and he traces his 
ancestry back to old and respected German 
stock through both father and mother. The 
elder Em was formerly a successful dry- 
goods merchant in Newark, but retired 
from business some years ago. The son re- 
ceived his rudimentary education in the pub- 
lic school of his native city but dropped his 
studies at the age of fourteen years to be- 
come an apprentice with the firm of Unger 
Brothers, jewelry manufacturers, with 
which concern he remained for two years. 
He then accepted a position as postal clerk 
in the Newark Post-office, in which capaci- 
ty he served for the following eight years, 
working nights. During the last three 
years of that period, he attended the New 
York Law School, pursuing his studies 
during the day and performing his postal 
duties at night. Through his own efforts 
alone, he acquired a thorough knowledge of 
law and prepared himself for that profes- 
sion with a completeness that rendered him 
fully equipped for its successful practice. 



He possessed a natural ability and markea 
aptitude for the calling and this, combined 
with his earnestness and untiring applica- 
tion, resulted in his entering upon his chos- 
en field of effort with qualifications and at- 
tainments of an exceptional order. 

After reading law in the office of Henry 
W. Egner, Jr., in Newark, Mr. Ern was 
admitted to the bar of New Jersey as an 
attorney in March, 1904, and as a counselor 
in 1907. Establishing himself in general 
practice in Newark, he was successful from 
the very beginning, his talents attracting 
immediate attention. His services were re- 
tained in a number of important cases and 
he acquitted himself in a manner highly 
creditable to himself. He guards the inter- 
ests of his clients with a fidelity that has 
given him enviable repute and he prepares 
his causes for trial with a care and skill that 
have drawn favorable comment. A staunch 
Republican in his political opinions and af- 
filiations, Mr. Ern has actively participated 
in the campaigns of his i)arty, in which con- 
nection he has rendered valuable service. 
In 1907 he was the nominee of his party 
for the office of Alderman in the Thir- 
teenth Ward of Newark, a position for 
which he was defeated by the very narrow 
margin of only six votes. 



122 



BIOGRAPHICAL CYCLOPEDIA 



Greatly interested in athletics and all 
wholesome outdoor sports, Mr. Ern is an 
enthusiastic member of the National Turn 
Verein. Refined in his tastes and a lover of 
fine books, he has collected a large and val- 
uable library, in which he takes an unfail- 
ing delight. He is popular among his 



friends, his personality being of a pleasing 
type, and he is justly esteemed in his city as 
one of its representative men. Mr. Ern 
married February 27, 1905, Elsie Jorale- 
mon, granddaughter of the late Abraham 
Joralemon, former president of the Board 
of Works of the City of Newark. 



LEWIS MICHAEL SMITH 

NEWARK 



LEWIS MICHAEL SMITH, a worthy 
representative of one of the great in- 
dustries for which the city of Newark is 
famous the world over, was bom in the 
town of Sompolno, County of Kolo, Gov- 
ernment of Kalisz, Russian Poland, on Sep- 
tember I, 1833. He was educated by pri- 
vate tutors with a view of entering a uni- 
versity in Russia, and, besides his mother- 
tongue of Platt-Deutsch, he acquired fluency 
in the German, Polish, and Russian lan- 
guages. The death of his father put an end 
to all thought of a university education, and 
he was apprenticed to the trade of tanner 
and currier. About a year before the expir- 
ation of his apprenticeship he was drafted 
for a twenty-five years' service in the Rus- 
sian army. Bent on avoiding this and know- 
ing that officers would soon be seeking him, 
he ran away from home, secreted himself in 
a barn and during a stormy night made his 
way across the frontier to German soil. 
Thence he worked his way to Liverpool and 
New York, reaching the latter city with less 
than a dollar in his pockets. He had a pre- 
carious existence there till good fortune 
brought him to the favor of Levi W. Flagg, 
M. D., of Yonkers, New York, who took 
him into his home and became a second 
father to him. Throughout his life he took 
special delight in acknowledging the bene- 
ficial efl^ect the kindness, the advice, and the 
example of Dr. Flagg had had upon his ca- 
reer. He soon acquired a practical com- 
mand of the English language, and in 1853 



settled in Newark and found employment at 
his trade. 

Mr. Smith was born of Christian parents 
whose Sabbath began at sunset on Saturday 
and closed at sunrise on Monday. He was 
brought up in the Lutheran Church, but in 
1858 he united with the Second Presbyter- 
ian Church in Newark, in which he was ac- 
tive as an elder and as a Sunday School 
worker till shortly before his death. With 
several of his sons he was a member of 
Kane Lodge No. 55, Free and Accepted Ma- 
sons, but he never considered that his duty 
to his family, his church, and his business 
would permit him to form other associa- 
tions. In politics, he was a sturdy Republi- 
can. Though frequently solicited, he never 
allowed his name to be used in connection 
with public office. He had a supreme re- 
gard for law, and his love for his adopted 
country led him to volunteer for military 
service for its protection. He enlisted in 
the Second Regiment of New Jersey Vol- 
unteers, and served three years with it in 
the field. Throughout his business career 
he followed his original trade. In 1869 he 
organized the firm of Smith & Carr Broth- 
ers, tanners and curriers; in 1887 he found- 
ed the firm of L. M. Smith & Son ; and sub- 
sequently this became the firm of L. M. 
Smith & Sons. He was successful in his bus- 
iness operations and also in making and re- 
taining friends. He had a cheerful temper- 
ament, enjoyed the companionship of young 
people, and was esteemed for his upright- 








^^'. 



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BIOGR.\PHICAL CYCLOPEDIA 



123 



ness by all with whom he came into con- 
tact. 

Mr. Smith married Mary Jane Miller, of 
New Brunswick, New Jersey, in 1858. The 
children of this union were: Rebecca Anna, 
James Miller, William Joseph (deceased), 
Samuel Gustavus, Lewis Michael, Jr., 
Charles Augustus, Matthew Jackson, and 
Alary Jane. James Miller Smith held the 
office of Assistant United States District 
Attorney for the State of Montana for two 
terms, and resigned in 1908 to become 
Judge of the First Judicial District Court of 
that State. 

Mr. Smith died in Newark on October 26, 
1907. At a meeting of the officers, teachers 
and scholars of the Sunday-school with 
which he had so long been identified, a few 
days later, the following minute was unan- 
imously adopted : 

"On Saturday, October 26, 1907, Mr. 
Lewis M. Smith, an active worker in this 
school for many years, passed away. 

"A man who years ago set his face 



toward Home-Heaven, who developed, 
strengthened and sought to purify that 
which directs and inspires. 

"We almost hear the footsteps, and feel 
as if we would like to draw the veil and 
look into the invisible to see and hear the 
welcome. 

"The silence here may be wide ; we may 
be bereaved and lonely, but we may have a 
deep content that he is enjoying the full 
fruition of the hints of the Home beyond 
which he experienced here ; all the delight 
of boundless and unlimited joy. 

"Mr. Smith, as has been said, was identi- 
fied with this school and church for many 
years, a conscientious, faithful teacher. He 
was not troubled with a hopelessness of un- 
certainty. Never swerving from what he 
thought was good and right his purpose was 
not defeated and had that peace which is 
born and nurtured by love and confidence. 

"Not a breath of suspicion tarnished his 
name; he died leaving an unstained, envia- 
ble record, respected and esteemed by all. 

"A truly good man, he will live long after 
his decease, for he leaves something which 
we may heed: a well-finished life, good 
deeds and influence, sweet, pleasant mem- 
ories, a legacy for us to enjoy in the coming 
years." 



ABRAHAM S. D. DEMAREST 



HACKENSACK 



ABRAHAM S. D. DEMAREST, nota- 
ble as one of the leading business men 
and most representative citizens of Hacken- 
sack, was born at Schraalenburgh (now 
Bergen Field), Bergen County, New Jer- 
sey, May 18, 1834. He is a son of David 
S. and Margaretta (Durie) Demarest, and 
traces his ancestral line directly back to 
Jean des Marest, a prominent resident of 
Beauchamp, in the Province of Picardy, 
France, where, about 1620, was born David 
des Marest, a son of Jean and the founder 
of the American branch of the family. On 
reaching manhood, David des Marest 
espoused the Protestant faith and subse- 
quently fled to Holland to escape persecu- 
tion, locating at Middleburgh, on the Island 



of Walcheron, in Zeeland. There, on July 
24, 1643, he married Maria, a daughter of 
Francois Sohier, of Nieppe, a town in 
Hainault. The couple resided in Middle- 
burgh until 165 1, when they removed to 
Manhcim on the Rhine, in the lower Palat- 
inate, then under the protection of the Elec- 
tor Charles Lewis. At Manheim the Pro- 
testants were already being threatened by 
the Catholic princes and David des Marest, 
with others of a like religious faith, deter- 
mined to seek safety in America. In the 
spring of 1663, they journeyed down the 
Rhine to Amsterdam, where they embarked 
for New Amsterdam on the ship "Spotted 
Cow," reaching the last named port on 
April 16, 1663. Des Marest first went with 



124 



BIOGRAPHICAL CYCLOPEDIA 



his wife and three sons, John, David and 
Samuel, to Staten Island, where they joined 
the Huguenot settlement then recently 
started. The following year he was elected 
to represent the settlement in the Provincial 
Assembly. The savages proving trouble- 
some. Des Marest purchased and located on 
lands at New Harlem, then a name applied 
to the upper end of Manhattan Island. 
There he prospered, acquired several town 
lots, and became prominent in town affairs. 
In 1677, a tax having been levied upon him 
for the support of the Dutch church at 
Harlem, he refused to pay it, claiming im- 
munity therefrom because he was neither 
an attendant nor a communicant of the 
Dutch Church. The "powers that be" sued 
him for the tax, procured judgment, and 
proceeded by execution and levy to collect 
it. This angered Des Marest and he deter- 
mined to leave Harlem. On June 8, 1677, 
he purchased from the Hackensack and 
Tappan Indians a large tract estimated at 
about 6,000 acres of land on the east bank 
of the Hackensack river, extending north- 
ward from New Bridge. By subsequent 
purchase he added an extensive tract west 
of the Hackensack, on which he built two 
mills. He built his family residence in Old 
Bridge, now River Edge, and erected a 
branch church on the east side of the river, 
a little west of the Schraalenburgh road. 
The lands he bought were claimed by sev- 
eral white persons and by the savages. 
Some of these claims were not extinguished 
until after his death. He died in New York 
City in 1693, leaving a will by which he de- 
vised all his lands to his two surviving sons, 
John and Samuel, and to his very numer- 
ous grandchildren. 

Samuel des Marest, son of the preceding, 
was born in 1653 in Manheim on the 
Rhine in the Palatinate and died in 1728 in 
Schraalenburgh, New Jersey. He married 
August II, 1678, Maria, daughter of 
Simon Dreuns. Their children were eleven 
in number ; Magdalena, David, Samuel, 
Peter, Jacomina, Judith, Sarah, Simon, 
Rachel, Susanna and Daniel. Simon mar- 



ried Vroutie Cornelius Haring and had 
Samuel, Caroline, Cornelius, Daniel, Maria, 
John, David Simons, Peter, Jacob and 
Jacob. 

David Simons Demarest, son of the pre- 
ceding, was born March i, 1736, and was 
married March 27, 1758, to Jannetje Davids 
Campbell, by whom, among other children, 
he had a son, Simon Davids, who was born 
in Schraalenburgh, May 12, 1765, and died 
July 17, 1828. Simon Davids Demarest 
was married December 8, 1787, to Hannah 
Banta, who was born November 15, 1768, 
and died September 10, 1826. Among their 
children was David Simons Demarest, who 
was born in Schraalenburgh, August 23, 
1795, and died in that place, July 4, 1877. 
He was married in 1818 to Margaretta 
Durie, who was born August 31, 1802, and 
died January 17, 1867. They were the 
parents of eleven children ; Simon, de- 
ceased ; Jane, deceased ; David, living in 
California; Samuel D., deceased; John; 
Hannah ; Abraham, deceased ; Abraham S. 
D. ; Cornelius B., living in Brooklyn, New 
York ; Margaretta ; and Isaac, deceased, 
who has one son living on Staten Island, 
New York. 

Of these children, Abraham S. D. Dema- 
rest received his education in the common 
schools of his native place. From 1857 to 
1861 he was engaged in mining in the Cali- 
fornia gold fields, then a great attraction 
for young men of adventurous spirit. Re- 
turning to his New Jersey home, he assist- 
ed his father on the latter's farm, which 
was part of the original tract of David des 
Marest, the first settler. In 1869 he went 
to Newburg, New York, and there contin- 
ued in the music business until 1876 as a 
member of the firm of Demarest & Burr. 
In 1876 he established a stationery store in 
Hackensack, New Jersey, which he con- 
ducted at 45 Main street until 1893. In 
1886 he also established himself in the un- 
dertaking line and since 1894 he has been 
located at 23 Main street, Hackensack, 
making a specialty of the handling of high 
grade pianos and organs. 



BIOGRAPHICAL CYCLOPEDIA 



125 



As a business man ]\Ir. Demarest is high- 
ly endowed and he carries on his affairs 
with capacity and judgment. His methods 
are of the old school of honesty and his 
fair dealing has won him the regard and 
confidence of all with whom he has been 
brought into contact. .\ Democrat in his 
political principles, he served for three 
years as township committeeman. He is 
active in the affairs of the Hackensack Mu- 
tual Building and Loan Association, of 
which he has been the treasurer since June 
2. 1891. He holds membership in the First 
Reformed Church of Hackensack and takes 



a keen interest in benevolent work, being 
especially devoted to the Old Ladies' Home 
and the Bergen County Children's Home, 
to which institutions he has contributed 
labor, time and money. Mr. Demarest is 
public spirited to a marked degree and is 
always glad to co-operate in any movement 
that tends to promote the common welfare. 
He was married January 17, 1861, to La- 
vina Blauvelt, daughter of John D. M. and 
Sarah (Banta) Blauvelt. Their children 
are Margaretta, married to Cornelius T. 
Banta, and Sarah Louisa, married to Frank 
Banta. 



JOHN. R. EMERY 

NEWARK 



JOHN R. EMERY was born in Flem- 
ington, Hunterdon County, New Jer- 
sey, July 6, 1842. He was graduated from 
Princeton College in 1861, and studied law 
under Bennet Van Syckel, since a Justice 
of the Supreme Court, and also under the 
late Vice-Chancellor Van Fleet. Com- 
missioned as an officer in the Fifteenth 
Regiment, New Jersey Volunteer Infan- 
try, in the Civil War, he contracted fever 
while in the service, and was honorably 
discharged and mustered out for physical 
disability. In 1865 he was admitted to the 
bar and he formed with Mr. Van Fleet a 
partnership which continued for one year. 



Then he went to Trenton, where he was in 
partnership with the late Augustus G. 
Richey, until 1874. In the following year 
he moved to Newark, where he opened a 
law office and soon built up an extensive 
practice. About twenty years ago he was 
made an Advisory Master and was ap- 
pointed Vice-Chancellor by Chancellor 
McGill on January 29, 1895, fo'' ^ f"'l term 
of seven years, to succeed the late Vice- 
Chancellor Van Fleet, being reappointed 
by Chancellor Magie in 1902, and again re- 
appointed by Chancellor Pitney in 1909. 
In politcs he is a Republican. His term 
will expire in January, 1916. 



FREDERICK JAY 

NEWARK 



FREDERICK JAY, son of Theodore 
and Ida (Samuels) Jay, was born in 
Newark, New Jersey, May 8, 1870. He 
was educated in the public schools of New- 
ark, but at the age of thirteen, owing to the 
death of his father, was compelled to leave 
school and take up the task of earning a 



livelihood. However, he was determined 
to obtain an education, and while employed 
during the day, continued his studies during 
the night. His first employment was in 
June, 1883, with Brown & \'olk, real es- 
tate operators, and the same year he be- 
came an employee of his brother, Leopold 



126 



BIOGRAPHICAL CYCLOPEDIA 



Jay, at Market and Plane Sts., with whom 
he continued for eight years. In 1892 he 
obtained employment with the Baker Print- 
ing Company as confidential man and had 
charge of Toivn Talk, which at that time 
was published by that company. In 1894 
he purchased a coal business at Wickliffe 
and School Sts., and followed that vocation 
until February, 1895. After being em- 
ployed as bookkeeper for awhile, he then 
entered the office of Samuel and Leonard 
Kalisch and began the study of law. He 
was employed during the day until about 
five o'clock as bookkeeper and then went to 
the Kalisch law offices and studied law with 
that concern for two years, being admitted 
to the bar June 9, 1897. 

Mr. Jay is a member of the Democratic 
party and has ever taken an active interest 
in its various campaigns. In 1899 he was 
elected a member of the Board of Educa- 
tion in the Seventh Ward and served two 
terms, during which he was a leader of the 
minority. Through his efforts a new school 
was erected in Central Avenue and a lot 
was purchased in Warren Street, on which 
a large new school was built in 1908. He 
helped organize the Parents' Association in 
the Warren Street and Central Avenue 
schools, and was made honorary life mem- 
ber of the Central Avenue School Parents' 
Association. He also served as President 
of the Warren Street School Parents' As- 



sociation. In 1902 he was nominated for 
the Assembly on the Democratic ticket, but 
was defeated. At the time Dr. Gilbert re- 
signed as Superintendent of City Schools 
and Dr. Poland was appointed, Mr. Jay was 
the active chairman and engaged Dr. Pol- 
and to fill that position. He was a member 
of the Democratic County Committee from 
1902 until 1908 when he resigned. 

Mr. Jay is a successful practitioner at the 
New Jersey bar and is a self-made man in 
the fullest of that often misused term. He 
occupies many positions of trust which 
have been conferred upon him by his asso- 
ciates and various societies and associations. 
He is financial secretary of the Joel Parker 
Association, a member of the Jeffersonian 
Club, the Gottfried Krueger Association, 
the seventh ward Democratic Club, the Leni 
Lenape Club the Progress Club, the He- 
brew Orphan Asylum, the Triluminer 
Lodge No. 112, Free and Accepted Masons, 
Beth Israel Hospital and Ezekel Lodge No. 
90, Independent Order of I. O. B.' B., is 
on the Executive Board of the Grand 
Lodge of that order District No. 3, and also 
counsel for the Atlantic Building & Loan 
Association, and several others. He mar- 
ried November 29, 1900, Miriam Wiener, 
daughter of Oscar Wiener of Newark. 
They are the parents of one child, Eliza- 
beth Bernice Jay. 



EDMUND LEWIS JOY 

NEWARK 



EDMUND L. JOY, of Newark, was 
born in Albany, New York, October 
I, 1835, and was a descendant of Thomas 
and Joan (Gallop) Joy, early colonists of 
New England. Thomas Joy came from 
Norfolk County, England, in 1635, and was 
among the first landowners of Boston. He 
participated in 1646, with Samuel Maverick 
David Yale, Robert Child, John Dand, and 



others in the "Child Memorial" episode, 
which was an effort to effect certain re- 
forms and particularly to secure an exten- 
sion of the right of suffrage among the 
colonists. With his partner he designed 
and constructed in 1657, the first town 
house of Boston, which was also the first 
colonial seat of government ; and to him 
have been attributed the plans of the "Old 




/ 



BIOGRAPHICAL CYCLOPEDIA 



127 



Ship" meeting house still standing at Hing- 
ham, and other contemporaneous structures 
in Boston showing a characteristic style of 
architecture. In 1665 he became a free- 
man of the Massachusetts Bay Colony, and 
in 1658 a member of the Ancient and Hon- 
orable Artillery Company. From him has 
sprung a numerous progeny now scattered 
throughout the United States, which in- 
cludes many who have been active in pa- 
triotic service and successful in business 
and professional life. One of these was Na- 
thaniel Joy, who was a soldier in the War 
of the Revolution, and from him is de- 
scended the subject of this sketch. 

Edmund L. Joy was educated at the An- 
thony Classical Institute and the Albany 
Academy. He then entered the University of 
Rochester, and after graduation studied law 
in New York City, and in 1857 was ad- 
mitted to the bar of New York as an attor- 
ney and counsellor. Soon thereafter he 
commenced active practice in Ottumwa, 
Iowa, where in i860 he was appointed city 
attorney, holding that office for two years. 
At the breaking out of the Civil War, he 
offered his services to the cause of the Un- 
ion, and became active in raising troops and 
otherwise aiding the government. In 1862 
he entered the United States service as cap- 
tain in the Thirty-sixth Regiment of Iowa 
Infantry, and in this capacity served in the 
Southwest, participating in important move- 
ments on both sides of the Mississippi Riv- 
er which culminated in the capture of 
Vicksburg. In 1864 he was apjiointed by 
President Lincoln Major and Judge Advo- 
cate, United States Volunteers, and as- 
signed to the Seventh Army Corps, which 
was commanded by Major General Freder- 
ick Steele. He was also made Judge .Advo- 
cate of the Department of the Arkansas, 
with headquarters at Little Rock, in which 
position he had much to do with the admin- 
istration of justice in Arkansas and the In- 
dian Territory, and took part in the re-es- 
tablishment of the government of Arkansas 
under a new constitution. 

After retiring from the service he located 



in Newark, New Jersey, where his father, 
Charles Joy, a successful merchant, had set- 
tled in 1855. He became associated with 
the latter as partner in the management of 
extensive business interests, being a mem- 
ber of the New York Produce Exchange, 
and upon his father's death in 1873 suc- 
ceeded him, conducting the business on his 
own account during the remainder of his 
life. Since his death the business has been 
continued at the old established place as the 
Edmund L. Joy Company. 

It was but natural that by reason of his 
intellectual gifts, his superior attainments, 
and varied experience, he should have been 
called upon to make himself useful by his 
fellow-citizens in New Jersey: and so it 
happened that in 1871 he was elected a 
member of the State Legislature. Re-elect- 
ed the following year, he filled the import- 
ant position of chairman of the judiciary 
committee, wherein his legal knowledge and 
effectiveness as a speaker enabled him to 
render valuable service to the State. In 
1877 he was elected a member of the Board 
of Education of the City of Newark, and 
he held that position until the close of 1888, 
serving for three years as president of that 
body. Of the Board of Trade he was an 
early and active member, being its presiding 
officer in 1875 and 1876 and its treasurer 
from 1879 to the time of his death. In 1880 
he was a delegate to the Republican Nation- 
al Convention, and in 1884 and 1885, by ap- 
pointment of President Arthur, he served 
as a Government director of the Union Pa- 
cific Railroad Company. His extensive bus- 
iness operations and well known abilities as 
a business man made him prominent in mat- 
ters aflfecting the financial interests of the 
city in which he lived, and often placed him 
in positions of much responsibility. 

Great activity and energy of both mind and 
body were the prominent characteristics of 
Ednnmd L. Joy. Whatever he undertook 
was done with all his might, and failure in 
any enterprise was with him almost an im- 
possibility. His quickness of apprenhen- 
sion and correctness of judgment were 



128 



BIOGRAPHICAL CYCLOPEDIA 



equally remarkable, and if we add to these 
invaluable possessions the ability to express 
his thoughts in language both strong and 
elegant, it is no wonder that he snould hav<. 
been so successful as a soldier, jurist, states- 
man, and man of business. He was a gen- 
ial and entertaining companion, a warm and 
reliable friend, and withal a Christian gen- 
tleman, conscientious in the discharge of 
every duty, mindful of the rights of his fel- 
lowmen, and faithful in the service of his 
Maker. 

In 1862 Colonel Joy married Theresa R. 



Thrall, daughter of Homer L. Thrall, M. 
D. of Columbus, Ohio, who was Professor 
of Chemistry and Mineralogy in Kenyon 
College for a number of years and later 
Professor of Materia Medica and General 
Therapeutics in Starling Medical College. 
He died at his home in Newark, New Jer- 
sey, February 14, 1892, and besides his 
widow, left surviving him two sons Ed- 
mund Steele Joy and Homer Thrall Joy 
and one daughter Mrs. Robert D. Martin, 
the second daughter Helen Adele Joy hav- 
ing died in childhood. 



CHARLES J. ROE 

JERSEY CITY 



CHARLES J. ROE, who has attained 
prominence in the legal profession of 
New Jersey as one of its brightest and most 
successful practitioners, was born Septem- 
ber I, 1850, in Sussex County, that State. 
He is a son of Charles Roe and Elizabeth 
A. Coult, and is descended from old and re- 
spected ancestry through both branches of 
his family. After receiving his preliminary 
education, he entered Princeton University, 
from which institution he was graduated in 
the class of 1870. He took up the study 
of law in the office of Levi Shepherd and 
was admitted to the bar of New Jersey as 
an attorney in June, 1873, being made a 
counselor at law in June, 1876. He was 
made a special master in chancery in 1876 
and is a Supreme Court Commissioner. 

Until May i, 1895, he practiced his pro- 
fession at Newton, New Jersey, where he 
was recognized as one of the acknowledged 
leaders of the local bar. Among the num- 
erous law cases of more than ordinary im- 
portance with which Mr. Roe was then 
connected as counsel and in which he ac- 
quitted himself with signal ability may be 
cited those of Shotwell vs. Dalrymple, re- 
ported in 20 Vroom, 530; Hart vs. Ken- 
nedy, 2 Dick, 51 ; Roe vs. Moore, 8 Stew., 



90 and 526; Roy vs. Decker, 15 Vroom, 
245; Brasted vs. Sutton, 2 Stew., 513; and 
3 Stew., 462; in re Margarum, 26 Vroom, 
12 ; and Stoutenburgh vs. Hopkins, 16 
Stew., 577, and 8 Stew., 890. In 1895 Mr. 
Roe removed to Jersey City where he soon 
established a reputation as one of the ablest 
members of the New Jersey bar; and he 
commands an extended and influential prac- 
tice that includes many important interests. 
He is distinguished for the care, skill and 
effectiveness with which he handles the liti- 
gation entrusted to his hands, and for the 
thorough and accurate knowledge of law 
which he displays in his professional work. 
In 1908 he became senior member of the 
firm of Roe & Runyon, one of the leading 
firms of Jersey City. Mr. Roe is a Demo- 
crat in his political opinions and connec- 
tions, and he takes an active interest in the 
campaigns of his party, although he has 
never been an office seeker, his ambitions 
lying rather along the lines of his profes- 
sion. He has been for many years a direc- 
tor of the Sussex National Bank of New- 
ton, holds membership in a number of clubs 
and organizations, and is esteemed by his as- 
sociates in those bodies. 



BIOGRAPHICAL CYCLOPEDIA 



129 



ANTHONY R. FINELLI 



NEWARK 



ANTHONY R. FINELLI, counsellor at 
law, was born October i, 1881, in 
Castelvetere Valfortore, in the Province of 
Benevento, Italy. His father came to this 
country and settled in the City of Newark, 
in 1884. He received his early education at 
St. Philip's and Our Lady of Mt. Carmei 
Parochial Schools. After graduating he be- 
came a compositor and later was the manag- 
ing editor of the local Italian newspaper, 
La Cometa. Deciding to make law his pro- 
fession he studied under the supervision of 
Ex- Judge Thomas S. Henry, and was ad- 
mitted to the bar of the State of New Jerse> 
as attorney in June, 1905, and became coun- 
sellor at law in 1908. 

Mr. Finelli has the entire confidence, not 
only of the people of his own nationality, 
but of all who come to him for counsel and 
advice, in matters pertaining to the law. He 
is the one his countrymen go to when they 



are in difficulties in a strange land whose 
customs are so different from those of their 
own country ; and this because he has tluis 
far devoted all his energy and devotion 
towards eradicating and effecting a cure of 
those ills which have been a source of trou- 
ble to his countrymen. During the time 
tliat he has practiced his profession he 
has not been attracted by the dollar ; he has 
shunned the sub-branches of the law and 
has consecrated and devoted his time to 
study and practice alone. He has had con- 
siderable experience in the trial of civil and 
criminal causes, and is rapidly making a 
name for himself as an able trial lawyer. 
He is a Democrat in politics and is a mem- 
ber of several fraternal organizations. In 
the fall of 1905 he married Florence Fer 
retti, the daughter of John Battista and 
Mary Ferretti. He has two children Enle- 
nor and Charles Darwin. 



SCOTT GERMAN 



NEWARK 



SCOTT GERMAN, who has achieved a 
position of prominence in Essex County 
legal circles and in the political life of that 
section, was born near Lyons, Clinton coun- 
ty, Iowa, May 27, 1867. He is the son of 
Richard Drake German and Louise Smith, 
and is descended through both sides from 
old and respected American ancestral line- 
age. In 1868, while the younger German 
was still an infant, his parents removed to 
Maquoketa, Jackson County, Iowa, in which 
place he received his rudimentary education 
in the public schools, afterward attending 
the High School there and taking a post- 
graduates course in the latter institution. 
He later entered the .State University of 
Iowa, being graduated from the collegiate 



department, in which he took a law course. 
While living in Maquoketa he also read law 
in the office of the Honorable Gilman L. 
Johnson. 

Removing to Newark, New Jersey, in 
1890, he became a student in the law school 
of Columbia University, New York. He 
was admitted to the bar of New Jersey as 
an attorney in February, 1892, and as a 
counselor in 1895. He then entered the office 
of John L. Johnson, of Newark, a brother 
of his preceptor, the Honorable Gilman L. 
Johnson, afterward forming a law partner- 
ship with that gentleman, a relationship 
that continued until 1905, when the firm 
was dissolved, since which time Mr. Ger- 
man has carried on a general practice on his 



I30 



BIOGRAPHICAL CYCLOPEDIA 



own account. He has been very successful 
professionally, his standing at the bar being 
of a high order. His legal ability is marked 
and he has conducted the litigation entrust- 
ed to his charge with a skill, knowledge and 
success that have naturally earned him well 
deserved repute. His practice has devel- 
oped into an extended and important one, 
and his services have been sought by those 
requiring expert legal aid. 

Mr. German is an active Republican po- 
litically and finds pleasure in fighting the 



battles of his party, in which he has become 
recognized as a local leader of influence. 
He was prominently mentioned as a candi- 
date for the Legislature in the fall of 1908 
and as a candidate for Surrogate in 1909. 
He is President of the Lincoln Club of 
Roseville and a member of the Newark 
Board of Trade. He also holds membership 
in St. John's Lodge, No. i, Free and Ac- 
cepted Masons, the Roseville Athletic As- 
sociation, and numerous other organiza- 
tions. 



FRANK MOODY STILLMAN 

RAHWAY 



FRANK MOODY STILLMAN, well 
and favorably known in connection with 
the construction of many of the recent 
large improvements in and about New 
York City, as well as in New Jersey, was 
born in Brooklyn, New York, on Septem- 
ber 2, 1853. He is a descendant of George 
Stillman, who was born in England in 
1654, and settled in Westerly, Rhode Is- 
land, in 1684, and a great-nephew of Tim- 
othy Mix, a soldier of the Revolution, who 
was wounded and captured by the British 
at the battle of Ticonderoga, and was sub- 
sequently confined in the celebrated prison- 
ship "Jersey" in New York harbor. His 
parents were William Mix Stillman and 
Sarah Moody. 

Mr. Stillman received a public school 
education in Bridgeport, Connecticut, and 
from 1868 till 1882 was employed by the 
Howe Sewing Machine Company in 
Bridgeport, Providence, Rhode Island, and 
Glasgow, Scotland, and by the New York, 
New Haven and Hartford Railroad Com- 
pany. In the last mentioned year he be- 
came associated with David S. Cofrode, a 
widely-known contractor of Jersey City 
and Philadelphia, and in 1890, on the death 
of Mr. Cofrode, he organized and was 
made President of the corporation of the 



Sand ford and Stillman Company. Twelve 
years later, (1902) this corporation wa.« 
dissolved, and the new and present one 
formed, the F. M. Stillman Company, gen- 
eral contractors, of Jersey City, of which 
he is President. He also holds the same 
relation to the Independent Development 
Company of Jersey City, and the People's 
Co-operative Ice Company, of Railway, 
New Jersey. 

Mr. Stillman has done a very large 
amount of work in connection with har- 
bor, bridge and railroad improvements in 
a wide territory of which New York is the 
center. Probably the most important, at 
any rate the best known, of this work con- 
sisted of the foundations for the elevation 
of the Pennsylvania Railroad passenger sta- 
tion and tracks through Jersey City ; the 
erection of all the bridges on the elevation 
of that railroad through Newark, of all the 
bridges on tlie new tunnel line east of the 
Hackensack River, of the passenger and 
freight bridges over the Hackensack at Jer- 
sey City, and of several freight and other 
bridges in that city ; the erection of trolley 
bridges in Kearney, Fairview, and Car- 
teret, and highway bridges over the Pas- 
saic River at Avondale and Newark ; and 
the erection of the fine bridge over the 




(Dh?u^^ P// ^ydiZjtZ^ 



BIOGRAPHICAL CYCLOPEDIA 



131 



Hackensack at Newark Avenue, Jersey 
City. On other lines, he has built several 
railroads, a number of large freight sheds, 
eight of the Pennsylvania Railroad piers 
in Jersey City, three of the shafts for the 
tunnel under the Hudson between Jersey 
City and Manhattan, the Meadowbrook 
sewer system at Newark, involving many 
new features in such construction, and var- 
ious ferr\'racks, bridges and hoods for fer- 
ries at and near Jersey City. 

Mr. Stillman removed to Jersey City in 
1882, and in 1888 settled in Railway, where 
he has since resided. Notwithstanding the 
burden of many and weighty business re- 
sponsibilities, he has made time to give 
valuable service to his city, especially in its 
educational interests. In political affilia- 
tions he is a Democrat, yet his personal 
worth and popularity were pleasingly at- 
tested in 1901, when he was elected School 
Commissioner-at-Large for the city, his 
candidacy appearing on both the Demo- 
cratic and Republican tickets. He was 
twice re-elected to this office on the Demo- 
cratic ticket, and was twice elected Presi- 
dent of the School Board. Since January, 



1906, he has been a member of the Finance 
Board of Rahway. He is a vestryman of 
St. Paul's Protestant Episcopal Church of 
Rahway, and a member of the Rahway 
Club, the Colonial Country Club of Wood- 
bridge, New Jersey, the Machinery Club 
of New York City, and Acacia Lodge No. 
85, Free and Accepted Masons, of Con- 
necticut. 

He married, in Bridgeport, Connecticut, 
May 7, 1877, Caroline Griffiths, daughter 
of John and Ann Griffiths, both natives of 
Wales, and of this union were born, Ralph 
Griffiths, now a practicing physician in 
New York City ; Ruth Elizabeth, and Frank 
William, a student at the time of this writ- 
ing. Mr. Stillman, who bears a striking 
resemblance to Rear-Admiral Robley D. 
Evans of the United States Navy, like 
every really busy man, always has time 
to receive with courtesy, listen with pa- 
tience, and advise with thoughtfulness. He 
has an inviting manner, is exceedingly fond 
of domesticity, and possess a happy, cheery 
disposition that endears him closely to his 
friends. 



ALFRED N. DALRYMPLE 

NEWARK 



ALFRED N . DALRYMPLE, promi- 
nent as a lawyer and influential in the 
Republican politics of New Jersey, was 
born in Washington, D. C, December 16, 
1874. He is the son of Frederick B. and 
Annie E. (Newton) Dalrymple and comes 
of the Dalrymple family of Morris county. 
New Jersey, one of the oldest and most re- 
spected in the State. He received his edu- 
cation in the public schools of his native 
city, and, on the completion of his studies, 
in 1891, he entered the office of the Honor- 
able Perry S. Heath, then the Washington 
correspondent of various leading newspa- 
pers of the country. Taking up the study of 



shorthand, he applied himself with such 
earnestness and intelligence, and displayed 
such natural aptitude for the calling, that 
he speedily developed into a stenographic 
expert, whose speed and accuracy were of 
the perfect type. As a shorthand reporter, 
he reported a number of hearings before 
Congress and acted as confidential secretary 
to several members of the House of Rep- 
resentatives. 

L^pon the entrance of the Honorable R. 
Wayne Parker into Congress in 1895, Mr. 
Dalrymple was engaged as his private sec- 
retary and between the sessions of Con- 
gress studied law in the office of Cortlandt 



132 



BIOGRAPHICAL CYCLOPEDIA 



Parker and Wayne Parker. While in Wash- 
ington, he also attended the Columbian Uni- 
versity Law School, from which institution 
he was graduated with the degrees of Bach- 
elor of Laws and Master of Laws. He was 
admitted to the bar of the District of Co- 
lumbia as an attorney and counselor-at-law 
in 1897 and to the bar of New Jersey in 
1901. He resigned his secretaryship to 
Congressman Parker in 1903 in order to de 
vote more time to the practice of law, hav- 
ing established offices in Newark where he 
carries on a general practice and acts as 
counsel for a number of the leading firms 
and corporations of Essex County. During 
1904 and part of the following year he was 
secretary to Governor Franklin Murphy. 
As a lawyer his abilities are as pronounced 
as in the stenographic field, and the litiga- 
tion with which he has been identified has 
been handled with a skill and effectiveness 
that have won him enviable prestige. 

A Republican in his political principles, 
he has taken an active part in the campaign 
work of his party and has acquired recogni- 



tion in Essex County as one of the local 
leaders of the organization, wielding an in- 
fluence that is potential in Republican poli- 
tics of his county and State. He was elect- 
ed a member of the Newark Board of Al- 
dermen from the Fourth Ward in 1906, 
serving in that office with high credit, prov- 
ing himself a valuable public officer, and 
gaining the thanks of his constituents and 
of the city at large. He was chosen Chair- 
man of the Republican County Committee 
of Essex County in December, 1906, and 
unanimously re-elected to that responsibil- 
ity in 1907, his services accomplishing a 
great deal toward promoting his party's 
cause in the section under his charge. He 
is a member of the Republican State Com- 
mittee and his views carry weight in organi- 
zation councils. He holds membership in 
the Lawyers' Club of Newark, the Union 
Club, the Indian League, and several fra 
ternal bodies, including the Masonic order, 
in which he ranks high, being an officer in 
Salaam Temple, Mystic Shrine. 



WILLIAM FRANKLIN HOPPING 

NEWARK 



WILLIAM FRANKLIN HOPPING, 
a native of Middletown, Mon- 
mouth County, New Jersey, is a representa- 
tive of the Ninth Ward in the Common 
Council of the City of Newark. He is a 
descendant on both the paternal and ma- 
ternal sides from notable ancestry — the 
Hoppings, Coopers and Applegates — all 
having participated very creditably in the 
aft'airs of Church and State. He is also a 
descendant of Richard Hartshorne who, 
born in 1641, died in 1722, having been the 
first lawyer in New Jersey and for several 
years Speaker of the House. His father, 
George K. Hopping, married Mary C. 
Cooper, daughter of George F. Cooper, 
whose wife was Elizabeth Applegate, sister 



of the Honorable John S. Applegate, of 
Red Bank, a prominent lawyer of the State 
of New Jersey, one of the founders of the 
Monmouth County Historical Society and 
its first president. 

William F. Hopping was born in Middle- 
town, Monmouth County, New Jersey, Feb- 
ruary 10, 1885. He received his education 
in the public schools in that county and m 
Coleman's Business College, Newark, New 
Jersey. In 1902 he entered the retail lum- 
ber business in the employ of Henry H 
Mundy, who was later succeeded by the 
Bockoven Brothers Company, of which firm 
he is now secretary and treasurer. He is a 
member of the George Adams Council J. 
O. U. A. M., United Commercial Travelers 



BIOGRAPHICAL CYCLOPEDIA 



133 



of America, the Garfield Club, Sons of the 
American Revolution and other social and 
fraternal organizations. In politics he is a 
Republican and active and influential in the 
counsels of that party. He was elected a 
member of the Board of Aldermen in 1908 



for one year and in 1909 for two years. 
At the present time he is chairman of As- 
sessments and a member of the following 
committees : Poor and Alms, Public Build- 
ings, Municipal Lighting and Band Con- 
certs. He is unmarried. 



DAVID A. McINTYRE 



NEWARK 



DA\'ID A. McINTYRE was born in 
Ireland, November 27, 1863, and came 
to America in 1878, at the age of fifteen, 
settling in Newark, New Jersey. For the 
past twenty-five years he has been connect- 
ed with the Prudential Insurance Company. 
advancing through various positions to that 
of manager of the mailing department, and 
also having supervision of other depart- 
ments of that far famed institution. Deep- 
ly interested in the cause of education, for 
nine years he served as a member of the 
Board of Education of Newark, during 



three years of which he was President of 
the Board. As a member of the Board of 
Education and as its President, he has been 
a powerful factor in advancing the educa- 
tional system of Newark to the high plane 
upon which it is now placed. Politically he 
is affiliated with the Republican party, and 
he is a member of the Garfield Club of the 
Indian League. He is interested in ma- 
sonry and is a member of St. John's Lodge 
No. I, Free and Accepted Masons, Damas- 
cus Commandery, Knights Templar, and 
Salaam Temple. 



JAMES E. HOWELL 

NEWARK 



JAMES E. HOWELL was born in 
Wantage township, Sussex County, 
New Jersey, June 25, 1848. He attended 
the common schools in that locality, and 
finishing in them went to Mt. Retirement 
Seminary, near Deckertown, now Sussex. 
This was a well-known academy in those 
days and was sometimes called "Stiles' 
School." Taking up law as his profession, 
he studied in the University of Michigan, 
from which he was graduated. He also 
read law in the office of Coult & \'an Blar- 
com, in Newton. He was admitted to the 
Bar of New Jersey as an attorney in Feb- 
ruary, 1872, and as a counselor in June, 
1880. 



In 1874 he removed to Newark, where 
he has lived ever since, and there he prac- 
ticed his profession, until he became a 
Vice-Chancellor. On January i, 1876, he 
formed a co-partnership with Joseph 
Coult, which lasted under the well-known 
firm name of Coult & Howell until he ac- 
cepted his present office. Being much inter- 
ested in literature, he owns a valuable pri- 
vate library and is a trustee of the Newark 
Free Public Library. He served as a 
commissioner for the erection of the new 
City Hall in Newark, under appointment 
of the late Mayor Seymour, and paid 
especial attention to the details of the 
building. He served on the Essex Coun- 



134 



BIOGRAPHICAL CYCLOPEDIA 



ty Sinking Finid Commission for several 
years, belongs to the Board of Trade, the 
Road Horse Association and the State Bar 
Association, and is a member of several 
clubs. He was appointed Vice-Chancellor 



by Chancellor Magie to succeed Henry C. 
Pitney, who had resigned, and received 
his commission April 9, 1907, for a term of 
seven years. In politics he is a Republi- 
can. His term will expire i*n 1914. 



EDWARD LIVINGSTON PRICE 

NEWARK 



EDWARD LIVINGSTON PRICE, of 
Newark, one of the leading municipal 
lawyers in New Jersey, was born in New 
York City, December 25, 1844. He is the 
son of Francis Price, a Judge of the Court 
of Errors and Appeals, and Maria L. Hart; 
a grandson of Zachariah Price, a scout and 
private throughout the Revolutionary War ; 
and a lineal descendant of a Welsh immi- 
grant to Connecticut, whose son, Samuel 
Price, settled in Sussex County, New Jer- 
sey, about 1700. Rodman M. Price, a 
brother of Edward L. Price, was born in 
that county November 5, 1816, became a 
purser in the navy in 1840, and is said to 
have been the first person to exercise ju- 
dicial functions under the American flag on 
the Pacific Coast, where he was made naval 
agent in 1848. He was a member of Con- 
gress from New Jersey from 1851 to 1853, 
Governor of tlie State from 1854 to 1857, 
a delegate to the Peace Congress in 1861, 
and the founder in New Jersey of the nor- 
mal school. 

Edward L. Price received a private 
school education in Princeton, Trenton, 
Freehold, and Newark. In April, i86i,atthe 
age of sixteen, he joined the United States 
army as Second Lieutenant of Company E. 
Seventy-fourth New York Volunteers. He 
was promoted to the rank of First Lieuten- 
ant, and for gallant conduct at the siege of 
Yorktown was appointed by Major-General 
Joseph Hooker to a position on his staff as 
ordnance officer (1862) of Hooker's divi- 
sion of the Third Army Corps. He served 
as such all through the Peninsular cam- 



paign, at the termination of which he was 
promoted to be Major, July i, 1862, of his 
old regiment, which he commanded 
througli the subsequent battles of Bristow, 
Station, Second Bull Run and Chantilly. 
His valor and meritorious conduct won him 
the colonelcy of the One Hundred and 
Forty-fifth Regiment New York volunteers, 
his commission bearing date December 18, 
1862, although he was not yet quite eigh- 
teen years of age. 

When hostilities ceased Colonel Price re- 
turned to his home and began preparations 
for his life work. He studied law under 
the late Joseph P. Bradley, later Associate 
Justice of the United States Supreme Court. 
In June, 1866, he was admitted to the bar 
as attorney and began practice in Newark, 
and for over forty years has maintained 
high rank among the ablest representatives 
of tlie profession in the State. He was 
admitted as a counsellor in February, 1879, 
and is also an attorney and counsellor in the 
LTnited States Supreme Court and the 
United States District and Circuit Courts. 

In 1865 Colonel Price was elected to the 
lower branch of the State Legislature. He 
was not then twenty-one years old but ar- 
rived at that age before the Legislature met ; 
and in 1867 he was re-elected. For many 
years he has been an active worker and ef- 
fective speaker in behalf of the Democratic 
party. He was a member of the Essex 
County Democratic Committee for many 
years, and served as its Chairman most of 
the time. He was Chairman of the Demo- 
cratic State Committee, and as such com- 



BIOGRAPHICAL CYCLOPEDIA 



135 



manded the confidence and respect of his 
opponents as well as his associates. In 1896 
he took a very active part in securing the 
election of the Honorable James M. Sey- 
mour as Mayor of Newark, and was ap- 
pointed Corporation Counsel of Newark, 
May 26. In 1898, he was rc-a])]K)inted to 
the same position by Mayor Seymour after 
his re-election in Ajiril, 1898, and was again 
re-appointed to that position by Mayor 
Seymour after his third election as mayor. 



He is a member of the New Jersey Society 
of the Sons of the American Revolution 
and of numerous other organizations. 

Colonel Price has made a special study of 
municipal law, and has been counsel for 
the municipalities of Harrison, West 
Orange, South Orange, and Milburn, for 
the old Newark Aqueduct Board, and for 
three years for the first Board of Street 
and Water Commissioners, drawing the law 
creating the latter body. 



EDWARD SANFORD ATWATER 

ELIZABETH 



EDWARD SANFORD ATWATER, 
was born in Fairfield, Connecticut, 
February 18, 1843. He traces his ancestry 
to the early Colonial settlement of New 
England, and is descended in a direct line 
from forefathers who participated in the 
War of the Revolution. His father, the 
Reverend Lyman H. Atwater, D. D., 
LL. D., was for thirty years professor in 
Princeton University. The son was named 
Edward Sanford after his uncle, Edward 
Sanford, Judge of the Superior Court of 
Connecticut. After being graduated from 
Princeton University in 1862, he read law 
under the direction of John F. Hageman 
of Princeton. He received his degree of 
Bachelor of Law from Columbia University 
in 1866 and was admitted to the New Jer- 
sey Bar the same year. After receiving his 
degree he located in Elizabeth, New Jersey, 
where he continued in active practice until 
elevated to the bench of the District Court 
in 1896. He was reappointed in 1901 and 
again in 1906. 

Actively interested in the cause of edu- 
cation and in the progress of the municipal- 
ity in which he resided, he has ever been ac- 
tive in aiding such advancement. He served 
as a member of the Board of Education and 
for several years was Superintendent of 



Schools, lie was also a member of the 
City Council and for one term was presi- 
dent of that body. In July 1895 'i*-' ^^''^^ 
chosen City Attorney and the following 
year was appointed Judge of the District 
Court by Governor Griggs. He was re-ap- 
pointed by Governor Voorhees in 1901, and 
again re-appointed by Governor Stokes in 
1906. In May, 1906, he was appointed 
Judge of the Court of Common Pleas of 
Union County to fill a vacancy and was ap- 
pointed in 1908 to the same office for a full 
term by Governor Fort. 

He is President of the New Jersey State 
Society of the sons of American Revolution 
and is a member of Elizabethtowii Chapter 
No. I of that Society. He is also a member 
of Court Childs, Independent Order of 
Foresters, the Elizabeth Town and Country 
Club, The Suburban Club of Elizabeth, and 
the Princeton Club of New York. He is 
a member of the First Presbyterian Church 
and interested in church work, being an 
elder, and formerly superintendent of the 
Sunday School. He married, in 1876, Ger- 
trude Oakley, daughter of Dr. Lewis W. 
Oakley. He has two children, Henrietta 
Baldwin, wife of Herbert U. Farrand, anc} 
Edward S. Atwater, Jr., an attorney-at-law, 
residing in Elizabeth, N. J. 



136 



BIOGRAPHICAL CYCLOPEDIA 



CHARLES JONES 

MONTCLAIR 



CHARLES JONES, who has attained 
notable success as a member of the 
New Jersey bar, was born in Paterson, that 
State, August 15, 1878. He is the son of 
Harry Jones and Agnes Heuston, and is 
descended on both sides from old and prom- 
inent English ancestral stock. While an in- 
fant, he was taken by his parents to Sey- 
mour, Connecticut, and received his rudi- 
mentary education in the public schools of 
that place, supplemented by a course in the 
Seymour High School. He afterward en- 
tered Yale University, from which he was 
graduated in the class of 1900, with the de- 
gree of Bachelor of Arts. After leaving 
Yale University he was principal of the 
Rockville High School, in Rockville, Con- 
necticut, in which capacity he served with 
credit for about two years. For some time 
after that he was employed in the service of 
the United States Division of Forestry. 

In 1902 he returned to New Jersey and, 
having decided to engage in the profession 
of law, he entered the office of Edwin B. 
Goodell, of Montclair, and while there be- 



came a student at the New York Law 
School, frim which institution he was grad- 
uated in June, 1904. He was admitted to 
the New York bar the same month and in 
February, 1905, was admitted to the bar 
of New Jersey as an attorney, becoming a 
counsellor in February, 1908. In October, 
1906, he formed a partnership with George 
H. Gleeson under the firm name of Jones 
& Gleeson, with offices in Newark. As a 
practicing lawyer, Mr. Jones has met with 
exceptional success for one so young, and 
his standing at the bar is enviaoie. Hib 
ability is acknowledged and he conducts his 
cases with a skill and knowledge of high 
order. In politics Mr. Jones is an earnest 
Republican and he takes a warm interest 
in the political and public afifairs of Mont- 
clair. He holds membership in Montclair 
Lodge No. 144, Free and Accepted Masons, 
in the Yale Club of New York and in the 
Essex County Club, in which organizations 
he is deservedly popular. He married Fran- 
ces M. Ballard of Bloomfield, New Jersey, 
June 15, 1909. 



FRANK O. BRIGGS 

TRENTON 



FRANK O. BRIGGS was born in Con- 
cord, New Hampshire, in 1851. He is 
the son of Major James F. Briggs, who 
held a commission in the Eleventh New 
Hampshire Volunteers during the Civil 
War. The father served three terms as 
Congressman and was a prominent candi- 
date for United States Senator before the 
New Hampshire Legislature in 1883. There 
was an exciting contest for the office, from 
June until August, when Senator Rollins, 
although the nominee of the caucus, was 
defeated. Other candidates were General 



Marston and General Stevens, and Con- 
gressman Pike, who was finally elected. 

Frank O. Briggs was a student in 
Phillips Exeter Academy in 1866, 1867 and 
1868, and on September i, 1868, entered 
the United States Military Academy in 
West Point, graduating sixth in rank in the 
class of 1872. He served in the Second 
United States Infantry as Second Lieuten- 
ant until 1877, when he moved to Trenton 
and became associated with the well-known 
firm of John A. Roebling's Sons' Company, 
wire rope manufacturers and bridge build- 



BIOGRAPHICAL CYCLOPEDIA 



137 



ers, of which he is assistant treasurer. He 
was elected Mayor of Trenton on April 11, 
1899, by a majority of 816 over Joseph A. 
Corey, Democrat, and served until January 
I, 1902. He was appointed a member of 
the State Board of Educatioii by Governor 
Voorhees in 1901 for a term of three years, 
but resigned that office in 1902, upon his 
election to the position of State Treas- 
urer. 

On Jaiuiary 3, 1902, he was appointed 
State Treasurer by Governor Voorhees to 
fill a vacancy caused by the death of George 
B. Swain, of Newark, December 25, 1901, 
and in the following February, he was 
elected by a joint meeting of the Legisla- 
ture for a full term of three years, being 
re-elected by the Legislature of 1905. He 
served until March i, 1907, when he re- 
signed and was succeeded by Daniel S. 
Voorhees. He was elected United States 



Senator February 5, 1907, for a full term 
of six years. 

During a residence of over thirty years 
in Trenton, Mr. Briggs has taken a deep 
interest in all matters which tended to pro- 
mote the welfare of the city. As a jniblic- 
spirited citizen he enjoys a high degree of 
popularity, and in politics he has always 
been a steadfast Republican. In 1904 he 
was elected chairman of the State Republi- 
can Committee, and displa_\ed great ability 
and industry in the management of the suc- 
cessful campaign of that year. For several 
years he was I'residcnt of the Inter-Stite 
Fair Association, but in 1907 he resigned 
that office and also the chairmanship of the 
Republican State Committee, although still 
remaining a member of the latter body, rep- 
resenting Alercer county, and being chair- 
man of the Executive Committee. His 
term as senator expires in March, 1913. 



JAMBS THOMAS WRIGHTSON 

NEWARK 



JAMES THOMAS WRIGHTSON, M. 
D., distinguished as a political leader 
and medical practitioner, and a former 
Clerk of Essex County, was born in 
Easton, Maryland, 1853, a son of William 
L. and Mary E., (German) Wrightson. 
The family was established in Maryland 
at an early day in the history of that State, 
and the names of its members are to be 
found on the legal papers and documents 
in the State archives. Young Wrightson 
obtained his primary education in the pub- 
lic schools, and later pursued his studies 
for several years in Calvert College. En- 
tering the University of Maryland, he was 
graduated from that institution in 1878, 
with the degree of M. D. 

Locating in Newark he soon took rank 
among the successful practitioners, rap- 
idly building up a large practice. His 
ability won for him a liberal patronage. 



and the profession accorded him a fore- 
most place in its ranks. From 1889 until 
1892 he held the position of County Phy- 
sician, as well as Consulting Physician for 
the Essex County Insane Asylum, the 
Penitentionary and the Jail. He is a mem- 
ber of the American Medical Association 
and the Essex County Medical Society, 
and is also a member of the Practitioners 
Club of Newark. He is the author of the 
State Medical Law of New Jersey, and it 
was largely through his personal efforts 
that the law was passed through the legis- 
lature. 

In his political affiliations Ur. Wright- 
son is a Democrat, and has always taken 
an active part in the work of the party. 
When in 1892 a bitter contest was waged 
in his party over the nomination for Coun- 
ty Clerk, he was selected as a com])romise 
candidate and was elected by a handsome 



138 



BIOGRAPHICAL CYCLOPEDIA 



majority. He gave evidence of remarkable 
organizing ability while serving as presi- 
dent of the Jefferson Club, which increased 
its membership from one hundred to five 
hundred during his incumbency, and be- 
came one of the leading social political 
clubs in the State. Also it was through 
his efiforts to a great extent, that the Na- 
tional Association of Democratic Clubs 
was organized. 

Dr. Wrightson is a member of numer- 
ous social and benevolent organizations, 
among which may be mentioned the Es- 



sex Club, the Benevolent Protective Or- 
der of Elks, the Gottfried Krueger Asso- 
sociation, the Knights of Honor, the 
Knights and Ladies of Honor, and the 
Chosen Friends. As a citizen he is pro- 
gressing and enterprising; as a practi- 
tioner he ranks high in medical circles, as 
a public official he was thoroughly hon- 
est, conscientious and generally popular 
among all classes. He married, March 
29, 1891, Minnie C. Lydecker, of Newark, 
daughter of George E. and Ollie (Merritt) 
Lydecker, of Albany, New York. 



CHARLES FREDERICK KRAEMER 

NEWARK 



CHARLES FREDERICK KRAEMER, 
who for nearly two decades has been 
prominent in the professional, public and 
political life of Eastern New Jersey, was 
born in Port Jervis, New York, November 
16, 1868. His father Charles Kraemer, 
who was born in Wurtemburg, Germany, 
February 18, 1837, came to America in 
1853. He was a tailor by occupation and 
located in Newark. When the Civil War 
broke out, he enlisted, June i, 1861, in 
Company A, of the Twentieth New York 
Volunteers for two years. Upon the ex- 
piration of his term of service, he re-en- 
listed, September i, 1863, in Company C, of 
the Ninety-fifth New York Volunteers. 
During his military career, he took part in 
the following battles : Fredericksburg, 
Antietam, Seven Days Fight, Mine Run, 
Weldon Road, The Wilderness, Petersburg, 
and Spottsylvania Court House. He was 
promoted on the battlefield to be Corporal 
and Sergeant. In front of Petersburg in 
August, 1864, he was captured with his 
regiment and was sent to Libby Prison on 
Belle Island and finally was imprisoned for 
seven months in Salisbury Prison, North 
Carolina, where he endured great sufTer- 
ing. He was honorably discharged from 



service, June 19, 1865, in Annapolis, after 
having served under Generals AlcClellan, 
Grant, Sherman, Burnside and Warren. 
After the war he became a member of 
Hexamer Post No. 34 Grand Army of the 
Republic in 1872. He served in that or- 
ganization as Quartermaster for thirty-six 
years and was also elected in turn as Junior 
Vice-Commander and Senior Vice-Com- 
mander. He married in 1867 Mathilda Renz, 
daughter of Carl and Elizabeth Renz, of 
Brooklyn, New York. 

Charles F. Kraemer was brought to 
Newark by his parents in 1870 and was ed- 
ucated in the Green Street German Acad- 
emy, the Fourth Ward Public School, and 
the Newark High School. He entered 
Columbia College in New York City in 
1884, ^nd the College of Physicians and 
Surgeons of Columbia College in 1886, being 
graduated from that institution in the class 
of 1890, the degree of Bachelor of Arts 
and Doctor of Medicine being conferred 
upon him. His professional life was begun 
in the Roosevelt and Bellevue Hospitals, 
where he served upon the hospital staff. 
Returning to Newark in 1891, he entered 
upon the general practice of medicine and 
in 1893 established a wholesale and retail 




6^.^ 




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BIOGR.\PHICAL CYCLOPEDIA 



139 



drug business, in which he continued for 
the ensuing seven years. In 1900 he be- 
came identified with the German Mutual 
Fire Insurance Company as vice-president 
of the corporation, and was also Life In- 
surance Commissioner for several New 
York companies. In 1901. he established 
the firm of S. Leschziner S: Co., dealers 
and operators in real estate. From the date 
of this organization, to the present time 
( 1909) this firm has conducted and been 
identified with ever)' large real estate de- 
velopment in the city of Newark. It has 
been tlie pioneer in the building of apart- 
ment houses in that city ; among its most 
conspicuous operations in this direction 
liaving been the La Grange. The Cecil. The 
Congress, The Century office building. The 
Wiss Building, and the general develop- 
ment of the Clinton Hill section. 

Politically devoted to Democratic prin- 
ciples Mr. Kraemer has identified himself 
with the Democratic party since his gradu- 
ation from college in 1890. He w^as early 
elected a member of the Essex County 
Democratic Committee from the Fourth 
W'ard of Newark, and has ever since repre- 
sented in that body the Fourth Ward, the 
Seventh \\'ard. or the Eighth Ward. He 
served as a member of the Executive and 
Campaign Committees and for several 
years was treasurer of the County Commit- 
tee, in which position he conducted its af- 
fairs during several presidential campaigns. 
In 1890 lie was elected, by an over-whelm- 
ing majority. School Commissioner from 
the Fourth Ward of Newark and during 
his encumbency in that office served on sev- 
eral important committees. In 1904 he was 
nominated for the Assembly, and two years 
later he was nominated for Congress from 
the Seventh Congressional District against 
Richard Wayne Parker, the Republican 
nominee. .Mtliough he was not elected in 
the ensuing campaign he succeeded in al- 
most wiping out the nominal Republican 
majority. Concerning the results of that 
campaign the Newark Evening News, of 



November 7, 1906, made the following 
declaration. 

"Comment among the leaders of both 
parties to-day gave precedence to the 
phenomenal run of Dr. Kraemer, who in 
one of the strongest Republican Congres- 
sionial districts, which a year ago gave Mr. 
Parker the generous plurality of more than 
11,000, succeeded in reducing that number 
to a few hundred. Dr. Kraemer having 
beaten Mr. Parker, in his home town, West 
Orange, by eighty votes. With the com- 
plete tabulations the votes stood, for Park- 
er — 16,443, ^or Kraemer — 16,123. ^t was 
generally conceded that the many marked 
ballots which were not counted, would have 
sent the Doctor to Congress, if a recount 
had taken place." 

In 1907 he was nominated for County 
Clerk of Essex upon the Gubernatorial 
ticket with Frank S. Katzenbach, but was 
not elected. In the social and fraternal life 
of Newark he has been particularly con- 
spicuous, being a member of most of the 
prominent fraternal, benevolent, civic and 
political organizations. His membership 
includes Schiller Lodge No. 66, Free and 
Accepted Masons, Ancient Accepted Scot- 
tish Rite of Free Masonery, Salaam 
Temple Ancient Accepted Order of 
the Nobles of the Mystic Shrine, New- 
ark Lodge No. 21, Benevolent and 
Protective Order of Elks, Lucerne Lodge 
No 181, Independent Order of Odd Fel- 
lows, American Lodge No. 143, Knights of 
Pythias, Foresters of America, Independent 
Order of Foresters, Order of German- 
Americans, Sons of \'eterans, Board of 
Trade, Newark Turn Verein, the All Down 
Bowling Club, the Joel Parker Association, 
Jefferson Club, North End Club, Gottfried 
Krueger Association, Leni Lenape, New 
Jersey Automobile and Motor Club, 
Road Horse Association, Green Street 
School Alumni, and the* Columbia Col- 
lege Alumni. He is also President of 
the Fourth Ward Improvement Association 
and the Bradley Beach Improvement Asso- 
ciation ; \'ice-Presidcnt of the Eiglilh Ward 
Improvement Association; Secretary of the 



I40 



BIOGRAPHICAL CYCLOPEDIA 



Chelsea Securities and Investment Com- 
pany, and Treasurer of the Federal Build- 
ing and Loan Association. 

Mr. Kraemer married October i8, 1893, 
Freda Seitz Meyer. Mrs. Kraemer is well- 



known in musical circles, being a soloist of 
marked ability. She also devotes much time 
to charitable organizations and missionary 
work. Two daughters have been born of 
this marriage, Freda and Emma Kraemer. 



CHARLES GEDDES CAMPBELL 



ORANGE 



CHARLES GEDDES CAMPBELL, 
who for many years was prominently 
identified with the business interests of 
Newark, was born in Newark, February 
8, 1825. He was the son of Abner and 
Deborah Campbell, and after acquiring a 
liberal education he became associated 
with his father in the mirror and picture 
business, being at that time, in 1852, lo- 
cated on Market street. After his fath- 
er's death, Mr. Campbell continued the 
business in Broad street where he re- 
mained until shortly before going to Mor- 
ristown to reside. For many years he was 
President of the Manufacturers' National 
Bank of Newark, and a striking life size 
portrait of him, hanging on the wall of the 



directors' room of that institution, be- 
speaks the high esteem fn which he was 
held by his business associates. With 
Chancellor Theodore Runyon and others 
he was the founder of the Manufacturers' 
National Bank. At one time he was in the 
directorate of the Prudential Insurance 
Company, and also director of the Mount 
Pleasant Cemetery Association. He was 
a member of the Park Presbyterian 
Church of Newark, and for many years 
was president and treasurer of the Board 
of Trustees of that church. He married 
Delia Crane and had two surviving chil- 
dren, Anna D. and Charles B. Campbell. 
He died in Morristown, New Jersey, May 
29, 1905. 



ABRAM QUICK GARRETSON 

MORRISTOWN 



ABRAM QUICK GARRETSON was 
born in Franklin township, Somerset 
County, New Jersey, March 11, 1842. On 
both the paternal and maternal side, he 
was descended from Holland Dutch ances- 
try, his parents being members of the 
earliest families in Somerset County. His 
father was Martin Schenck Garretson 
and his mother Ann (Quick) Garretson. 
His maternal great-grandfather, Abram 
Quick, was a colonel of the New Jersey 
Militia in the Revolution. Many of his 
ancestors on both sides took an active 



part in public and commercial affairs of 
that State, held posts of honor and trust 
and were always counted among the fore- 
most citizens of their time. 

In 1859, Mr. Garretson entered Rutgers 
College, and was graduated from that in- 
stitution in the class of 1862, receiving the 
degree of Master of Arts, and standing 
first in his class. Almost immediately af- 
ter graduation he registered as a student 
of law in the office of Abraham O. Za- 
briskie of Jersey City, who was afterwards 
Chancellor of the State of New Jersey. 




^.G . (OO/ytJUHM^ . 






BIOGRAPHICAL CYCLOPEDIA 



141 



After completing his studies with Mr. Za- 
briskie he attended the Harvard Law 
School and in November, 1865, was ad- 
mitted to the bar of New Jersey as an 
attorney and three years later as a coun- 
selor. Subsequently he was admitted to 
practice before the United States Supreme 
Court in Washington. He began the ac- 
tive practice of his profession in Jersey 
City in 1865, being associated with Robert 
Gilchrist, who was afterward attorney 
general of New Jersey. In 1867 he took 
up his professional work alone, and in 
February, 1869, was appointed by Gover- 
nor Randolph to be Prosecutor of the 
Pleas of Hudson County for a term of five 
years. In 1874 he was re-appointed to the 
same position by Governor Parker, and 
in 1878 he resigned after having served 
for nine consecutive years. His resigna- 
tion was in order to enable him to ac- 
cept from the hands of Governor McClel- 
lan, the office of President Judge of the 
Hudson County Court of Common Pleas, 
and that office he filled for a full term of 



five years. In 1883, he formed a legal 
partnership with James B. Vredenburgh, 
under the firm name of X'redenburgh & 
Garretson. In this firm he continued in 
private practice until, in 1900, he was ap- 
pointed by Governor Voorhees Justice of 
the Supreme Court, to fill the vacancy 
caused by the death of Justice Lippincott. 
In January of the following year, 1901, he 
was appointed to serve a full term of sev- 
en years. 

Outside of his professional career. Judge 
Garretson was a member of the staff of 
Governor Bedle; was president of the 
New Jersey Title and Guarantee Trust 
Company, one of the original title guaran- 
tee companies in the State of New Jer- 
sey ; and he was also a director in the 
Third National Bank of Jersey City. He 
married Josephine Boker in 1879, and 
had two daughters and one son ; Jose- 
phine B. L., Eleanor Helen and Leland 
B. Garretson. His death occurred in Mor- 
ristown, June 3, 1909. 



WILLETT BIRD GANO 

OR.'^NGE 



WILLETT BIRD GANO, of Orange, 
was born in Annandale, Hunter- 
don County, New Jersey, December 29, 
1870. His parents were Richard Hoagland 
and Christiana (Volk) Gano. Ricliard H. 
Gano was a prominent manufacturer of 
sash, doors and blinds in .Xnnandale until a 
disastrous fire induced his removal with his 
family to Raritan, New Jersey, where they 
remained until 1875, when they settled in 
Trenton, at which time Mr. Gano re-en- 
gaged in manufacturing and became a con- 
tractor and builder on quite an extensive 
scale. Later he removed to Camden, New 
Jersey, where he engaged in "artistic stair 
building." He died in Camden, October 
18, 1899. His widow still survives, in 1909. 



W'illett B. Gano received his education in 
the public schools of Trenton. He took a 
post-graduate course in civil engineering, 
but abandoned this as a profession, and in 
1893 located in Orange, entering the em- 
ploy of the Swift Brothers' Packing Com- 
pany, as an accountant. He was promoted 
to traveling auditor, which position he re- 
signed to become expert accountant in the 
office of the city tax collector of Orange ; 
and there he established a system of book- 
keeping which proved so practical and sat- 
isfactory that it has been continued evei 
since. He was elected City Clerk of Orange, 
February 1, 1904, and was re-elected in 
1907. He is treasurer of the McKinley and 
Roosevelt Republican Club of Orange, es- 



142 



BIOGRAPHICAL CYCLOPEDIA 



tablished in 1902 ; secretary of the Orange 
Rod Club and a member of Corinthian 
Lodge, No. 57, Free and Accepted Masons, 
and of the First Presbyterian Church ol 



Orange. He married, March 5, 1892, Anna 
M. Jones, of Trenton, daughter of Jesse 
Jones, and lias two children; Richard W. 
and Alice E. 



JACOB WEIDMANN 

PATERSON 



ANCESTORS of Jacob Weidmann for 
many generations were expert silk- 
dyers in Switzerland, being located in the 
village of Thalweil, one of the chief cen- 
ters of the silk industry of that country, 
where the largest silk manufactories in the 
world are located. Born in this village 
March 22, 1845, it was natural that the 
subject of this sketch should follow in the 
footsteps of his forefathers and pursue the 
vocation of manufacturing and dyeing silk. 
He is not the only representative his 
family in the present generation to pursue 
this line of work. His brother, August 
Weidmann, of Thalweil, conducts the sec- 
ond largest establishment of its kind in 
the world, and if the two brothers. August 
Weidmann, of Tahlweil, and Jacob Weid- 
mann, of Paterson, were to combine their 
two establishments, their business enter- 
prise would be by far the largest of its 
kind in the entire world. The parents of 
Jacob \\'eidmann were Frederick and Es- 
ther (Schappi) Weidmann, both members 
of reputable old Swiss families. 

Jacob Weidmann received his education 
in the Institut Hiini Horgen, a celebrated 
boarding school, or pension, near Zurich, 
where he continued for four years. He 
learned the trade of silk dyeing under his 
father, with whom he remained until the 
completion of his seventeenth year. Being 
determined to make himself master of the 
entire art of dyeing, and especially to ac- 
quire a familiarity with the most improved 
methods and processes employed in its very 
delicate branches, he spent five years as an 
artisan in various silk dyeing concerns in 



Germany and France. After acquiring all 
the knowledge that could be gathered in 
one establishment he passed on to another, 
and in this way he attained to a proficiency 
in his chosen calling which probably has 
never been surpassed. 

Mr. Weidmann came to the United 
States in 1867, at the age of twenty-two. 
He was employed for five years with the 
firm of Cheney Brothers, of South Man- 
chester, Connecticut, and then removed to 
Paterson, where he went into business with 
Thomas Dale, at that time the largest silk 
manufacturer of Paterson. A year and a 
half later Mr. Dale failed, whereupon Mr. 
Weidmann embarked in the dyeing indus- 
try for himself, taking the dye house at 
the corner of Paterson and Ellison Streets. 

The present concern, known as the 
Weidmann Silk Dyeing Company, was in- 
corporated in 1882, with an ample capital 
for the convenient conduct of an extensive 
business. In 1887 the works were removed 
to Riverside, where they have since been 
steadily enlarged. They cover a space of 
some two hundred city lots, and, being lo- 
cated both on the Erie Railroad and the 
Passaic River, have unsurpassed facilities. 
Their product is skein silk in blacks and 
colors, and in capacity of the mills and 
operatives employed the works are the 
largest of their kind in America. Jacob 
Weidmann is the President of the com- 
pany, and indeed the direction of its affairs 
has always been in his hands exclusively. 

The successful career of Mr. Weidmann 
is the result of his own unassisted efforts. 




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BIOGRAPHICAL CYCLOPEDIA 



143 



He came to this country a complete 
stranger, and within a comparatively brief 
time after his arrival was in possession of 
a prosperous business of his own. Since 
locating in Paterson his industry has grown 
steadily, with never any interval of em- 
barrassment ; and yet at every stage it has 
owed its development solely to Mr. Weid- 
mann's executive ability and manacement. 



One of the most forceful characters in the 
industrial community of Paterson, he also 
occupies a high position as a citizen, and in 
all respects belongs to the most represent- 
ative men of the present generation in that 
city. He lives with his family in a hand- 
some residence on Carroll Street. He mar- 
ried Miss Cheney, of South Manchester, 
Connecticut, and has one daughter. 



LITTLETON KIRKPATRICK 

NEWARK 



LITTLETON KIRKPATRICK, who, 
despite his youth, has already achieved 
notable success in the business life of Essex 
County, was born in Newark, New Jersey, 
September 2, 1884. He is the son of An- 
drew Kirkpatrick and Louise C. Howell, 
and comes of the noted New Jersey family 
of Kirkpatricks. his father being the dis- 
tinguished jurist, Judge Andrew Kirkpat- 
rick, of the United States District Court of 
New Jersey, while his grandfather was the 
Honorable Andrew Kirkpatrick, Chief Jus- 
tice of the State. Springing as he does from 
such an old and prominent ancestral stock 
it is not surprising, that Littleton Kirkpat- 
rick should have inherited his full share ot 
the family talents and is, in his own ca- 
reer, upholding the honor of the family 
name by a success in life that has been 



common to its representatives in every gen- 
eration. He received his education in St. 
Paul's School at Concord, New Hampshire, 
afterward entering Princeton University, 
from which institution he was graduated 
in the class of 1906. After leaving college, 
he spent a year in Cuba with an engineer- 
ing corps. At the end of that time, he re- 
turned to Newark, where he embarked in 
the Real Estate and Insurance business 
under the firm name of Kirkpatrick & 
Young. Personally, he is a gentleman of 
admirable character who possesses a host 
of friends. He married June 9, 1908, 
Amy L. Crane, daughter of Edward 
N. Crane, vice-president of the Arlington 
Company. He has one daughter, Amy C. 
Kirkpatrick, born May 25, 1909. 



JOHN OLIVER HALvSTED PITNEY 

MORRISTOWN 



JOHN OLIVER HALSTED PITNEY, 
eminent in New Jersey legal life as 
one of the ablest and most rei^resentative 
members of the bar of that State, was born 
in Morristown, New Jersey, April 14, i860. 
He is a son of Henry Cooper Pitney and 
Sarah Louisa Halsted, and comes from an 



old family of English origin famous for its 
distinguished men. His elder brother, Hen- 
ry Cooper Pitney, Jr., and his brother, 
Mahlon Pitney, as well as the father, all 
attained notable prominence as lawyers, 
Mahlon Pitney representing the counties 
of Hunterdon, Morris, Sussex and Warren 



144 



BIOGRAPHICAL CYCLOPEDIA 



in Congress, to which he was elected in 
1894, and being now Chancellor, his father 
before him having been Vice Chancellor of 
the State. 

Mr. Pitney is a grandson of jMahlon Pit- 
ney and Liicetta Cooper, his wife and a 
great-grandson of Mahlon Pitney, a soldier 
in the Revolutionary War, in which strug- 
gle for national independence his great- 
great-grandfather, David Thompson, and 
Henry Cooper, his grandmother's ancestor, 
also served. His great-great-great-grand- 
father was James Pitney, whose father, 
also named James, came to this country 
early in the eighteenth century from Eng- 
land, having been a manufacturer on Lon- 
don Bridge. The family is found originally 
at Pitney Parish and Pitney Hundred in 
Somersetshire, England, and for nearly two 
hundred years has lived in Morris County, 
New Jersey. The Pitneys, it will thus be 
seen, spring from an ancient and honorable 
line of ancestry. 

Henry Cooper Pitney, Sr., was born in 
Mendham, Morris County, January 19, 
1827, and was graduated from Princeton 
College in June, 1848. He studied law un- 
der Theodore Little and the Honorable Ira 
C. Whitehead, both of Morristown, and 
was admitted to the bar as an attorney in 
185 1 and as a counselor in 1854. Begin- 
ning practice in Morristown, he soon be- 
came prominent in his profession as one of 
its most learned and brilliant advocates. In 
dealing with scientific questions and mat- 
ters of equity law he stood without an 
equal. In 1862 he was appointed Prosecu- 
tor of the Pleas of Morris County and 
served in that capacity with the fullest 
credit for five years. For several years he 
acted as Advisory Master in Chancery and 
on April 9, 1889, he was appointed Vice 
Chancellor by Chancellor McGill, being re- 
appointed in 1896. In the absence of the 
Chancellor he has been three times appoint- 
ed, under the statute, a master to act for that 
official and he was also one of the first ten 
Advisory Masters appointed by Oiancellor 
Runyon in pursuance of a statute passed for 



that purpose. As Vice Chancellor Mr. 
Pitney added materially to his high prestige 
and brought to the office every required 
qualification. A director of the Morris- 
town Library and Lyceum from the time of 
its organization, he was one of its ruling 
spirits and he was for many years a direc- 
tor in the National Iron Bank of Morris- 
town, President of the Morris Aqueduct 
Company, and a trustee in the First Pres- 
byterian Church of Morristown. He mar- 
ried April 7, 1853, in New York City, 
Sarah Louisa Halsted, daughter of Oliver 
Halsted and Sarah Crane, of Elizabeth and 
Newark, New Jersey. 

John Oliver Halsted Pitney, received his 
preparatory education in the private schools 
of Morristown and afterward entered 
Princeton University, from which he was 
graduated in the class of 1881, with the de- 
gree of Bachelor of Arts, that of Master 
of Arts being conferred upon him by the 
same institution in 1884. He read law with 
his father in Morristown and was admitted 
to the bar of New Jersey in June, 1884, as 
an attorney and as a counselor three years 
later, in 1887. Immediately after his ad- 
mission as an attorney, he established him- 
self in the practice of his profession, in 
Newark, where he has since remained. For 
the first two years he was in partnership 
with Frederick H. Tuse and for the past 
six years he has been similarly associated 
with John R. Hardin. Three years ago A. 
F. Skinner was admitted as a partner, since 
which time the firm has gone under the 
style of Pitney, Hardin & Skinner. There 
is no better known law firm in the State of 
New Jersey and its clientile is large, ex- 
tended in character and importance and in- 
fluential. As a lawyer and advocate, Mr. 
Pitney exhibits the family talents to a pro- 
nounced degree. He is thoroughly versed 
in the law and he has gained a standing in 
his profession that places him among the 
acknowledged leaders of the New Jersey 
bar. He has been successfully and promin- 
ently identified with many important causes, 



BIOGRAPHICAL CYCLOPEDIA 



145 



and his services are widely sought by cor- 
porations and others desiring the best at- 
tainable legal talent. 

Mr. Pitney is a Republican, but while 
an earnest upholder of the principles of 
his party he has never held or desired pub- 
}ic office, preferring to devote his time and 
energies to the requirements of his large 
professional interests. He is a director of 
the Mutual Benefit Life Insurance Com- 
pany, the National Newark Banking Com- 
pany, and the American Insurance Com- 
pany. He holds membership in the Essex 
Club, the University Club, of New 
York, the New York Yacht Club, the 
Morristown Golf Club and the Morris- 
town Club, in all which social organi- 



zations he is prominent and popular. 
A Presbyterian in his religious views, he is a 
member of the First Presbyterian Church 
of Morristown, in which place he makes his 
home and is esteemed as a leading citizen. 
?Iis public spirit and liberal contributions 
to worthy purposes have gained him the re- 
spect of his fellow townsmen and in his per- 
son the family name has a representative 
who bears it well and worthily, and who 
has, in his own career, added fresh lustre 
and honor thereto. He married January 15, 
1890, Roberta A. Ballcntinc, daughter of 
Robert F. and Anne E. Ballantine. To this 
marriage have been born two sons, John B., 
born December 12, 1892, and Robert H., 
born June 4, 1907. 



JOSEPH COULT 

NEWARK 



JO.SEPH COULT, one of the ablest 
members of the Newark bar, is de- 
scended from an early Connecticut family 
which came to New Jersey about the mid- 
dle of the eighteenth century and first set- 
tled in Sussex County. He was the young- 
est of ten children, and was born in Frank- 
fort, New Jersey, May 25, 1834. In the 
common and classical schools of his day he 
received a thorough preparation for col- 
lege, but a collegiate course was aban- 
doned, much against his cherished hopes 
and ambitions. All inducements held out 
for him to enter mercantile life were of 
no avail; he was determined to take up the 
study of law and adopt that as his pro- 
fession. In 1858 he became a student in 
the law office of Thomas N. McCarter, 
then of Newton, Sussex County. A little 
later he entered and was regularly gradu- 
ated from the Albany (New York) Law 
School, and upon his admission to the bar 
of that State in 1858 he began active prac- 
tice in New York City. 

In 1 861 he was admitted to the New Jer- 



sey bar and the same year he opened an 
office in Newton, where he practiced suc- 
cessfully for thirteen years. In 1874 he re- 
moved to Newark, where he has since re- 
sided and followed his profession, and 
where for a time he was a partner of his 
distinguished preceptor, the Honorable 
Thomas N. McCarter. Later he fonned a 
partnership with James E. Howell, who 
had been a student in his office in New- 
ton, and thus organized the law firm of 
Coult & Howell, one of the oldest, best 
known, and most successful in the State. 

For a time Mr. Coult served as Presecu- 
tor of Pleas for Sussex County, and from 
1884 to 1892 he was City Counsel of the 
City of Newark. It was largely due to his 
efforts while acting in the latter capacity 
that the new and present water supply for 
Newark was accomplished ; and it was also 
mainly due to his indomitable efforts and 
personal direction that the law known as 
the "Martin Act" was passed. He prepared 
the original draft for this act, and worked 



146 



BIOGRAPHICAL CYCLOPEDIA 



incessantly to secure its passage by the 
Legislature; and, by its operation, many 
cities of the State were relieved from bur- 
densome indebtedness. Mr. Coult has al- 
ways been a Republican, and has repre- 
sented his party in several important jjoliti- 
cal conventions, both State and national. 
He was a delegate to the Baltimore Con- 
vention, at which Lincoln was for a second 
time nominated for President; to the Phil- 
adelphia Convention, which nominated 
General Grant for that high ofifice ; and to 
the Cincinnati Convention, which gave the 
presidential nomination to Rutherford B. 
Hayes. 

Mr. Coult is properly placed among the 
most sagacious and reliable lawyers in New 



Jersey. A man of rare legal attainments, 
courteous, dignified, and honest, his great 
force of character and unerring grasp of 
fundamental principles make him a power- 
ful advocate. He has few equals as a 
counselor, and of late years he has been of- 
ten called upon to act as counsel by promi- 
nent lawyers who recognize his special 
powers. As a citizen he is highly esteemed 
and universally respected, and takes a live- 
ly interest in all public affairs. 

Mr. Coult was married in May, 1859, to 
Frances A. Osborne, daughter of Joseph A. 
Osborne, of Frankfort Township, Sussex 
County, New Jersey. They have four chil- 
dren : Margaret, Eliza, Lillian, and Joseph, 
Jr. 



HENRY TRAPHAGEN 

JERSEY CITY 



HENRY TRAPHAGEN, prominent 
for many years as a leading member 
of the Hudson County bar and at one time 
Mayor of Jersey City, was born in that city, 
June I, 1842. He is the son of Henry 
Mackaness Traphagen and Sarah Consel- 
yea, being descended on both sides from old 
and notable ancestral stock. His grand- 
father was Henry Traphagen, Jr., who was 
graduated from Rutgers College in 1791 
and married a daughter of Cornelius Van 
Vorst. His great-grandfather, Henry Tra- 
phagen, Sr., was a trustee of Queens (now 
Rutgers) College in 1782. The Traphagens 
are one of the oldest and most representa- 
tive familes in Jersey City and for gener- 
ations have figured conspicuously in the 
business and professional life of Hudson 
county. No family in the State of New 
Jersey has reason to feel prouder of its 
lineage or of its allied branches. Its mem- 
bers have always distinguished themselves 
in whatever walk of life they were and 
ranked among the leading men of their day. 
Henry Mackaness Traphagen, father of the 



present Henry Traphagen, was a wealthy 
and influential citizen of Jersey City, no 
man ranking higher in that community than 
he. 

Like the father, the son has been a life- 
long resident of his native place. He re- 
ceived his education, like his ancestors, at 
Rutgers College, supplemented by a course 
at Brown University, Providence, Rhode 
Island. Having decided to take up law as 
his profession, he became a student in the 
office of the late Honorable Isaac W. Scud- 
der. He evinced marked aptitude for his 
chosen calling from the very beginning, be- 
ing admitted to the bar of New Jersey as 
an attorney in November, 1864, and as a 
counselor-at-law in November, 1867. Im- 
mediately after his admission in 1864, he 
established himself in practice in Jersey 
City, since which time he has continued in 
general practice there with a success that is 
pronounced. His clientile is of an extend- 
ed and influential type that speaks in itself 
for his ability and standing at the bar, and 
he is counsel for many of the leading cor- 




7r7^^*^^-*«^— 



BIOGRAPHICAL CYCLOPEDIA 



147 



porations and firms in his section. He has 
been identified with nuicli important htiga- 
tion in the New Jersey courts, and his skill 
and knowledge of law have brought him 
enviable prestige as a thoroughly qualified 
lawyer. 

His prominence as a citizen of Jersey 
City is shown by the fact that he was 
chosen Mayor of that city, serving in that 
official position from May i, 1874, to May 
I, 1876, in which capacity he acciuitted him- 
self in a manner that won him the fullest 
approval of the public at large. He per- 
formed his duties with a view to the gen- 
eral weal and successfully endeavored 
throughout his administration to advance 
the common interests of all. From Novem- 
ber, 1876, to March, 1881, Mr. Traphagen 



served as Corporation Attorney of Jersey 
City, his services in that position proving 
valuable to the city's interests. Previous 
to the consolidation of the three cities, Jer- 
sey City, Hudson City and Bergen, com- 
posing what is now Jersey City, Mr. Trap- 
hagen was counsel for the Board of Wa- 
ter Commissioners of Jersey City. He is 
a member of the Holland Society of New 
"S'ork, and was for one year, 1891-92, one 
of the vice-presidents of that body. In 
politics he is a Democrat, and as a citizen 
he is public spirited to a marked degree. 
His personality is pleasing and he is a gen- 
tleman of thorough culture and high intel- 
lectual attainments. He married Novem- 
ber 9, 1869, Annie Matilda Campbell, 
daughter of David Campbell, of New York. 



FREDERICK L. HOFFMAN 

EAST ORANGE 



FREDERICK LUDWIG HOFFMAN, 
statistican of the Prudential Insurance 
Company of America, at Newark, New 
Jersey, was born at \'arel, Grand Duchy of 
Oldenburg, Germany, on May 2, 1865, the 
son of Augustus Franciscus Hoffman, a law- 
yer of eminent standing and representative 
of several of the leading German life insur- 
ance companies; and of Antoinette von 
Laar, his wife. He received a public and 
private school education ; undertook a com- 
merical career near Bremen; came to the 
United States for larger opportunities in 
1884; and, after occupying several minor 
positions, entered the service of the Metro- 
politan Life Insurance Company, of New 
York, with offices at Waltham and Water- 
town, Mass., in 1887. 

This connection proved highly congenial 
to him, and while attending to its rountine 
duties he began a thorough study of the 
theory and practice of industrial life in- 
surance, statistics, and economic and social 
science. In 1890 he was transferred to Chi- 



cago as assistant superintendent ; in 1891 he 
resigned and went to Chattanooga, Tenn. ; 
soon afterward became assistant superin- 
tendent of the Life Insurance Company of 
\'irginia, with offices at Norfolk and Rich- 
mond, Va. ; and later was superintendent of 
the district of Newport News, Va. In 1893 
he was appointed statistical assistant in the 
acturial department of the Prudential In- 
surance Company of America; in 1899 was 
promoted to be statistician: and in 1902 
was elected an officer. 

He was married July 15, 1891. to Ella 
G. Hay, of Amcricus, Georgia. Seven chil- 
dren have been born of this union of whom 
six are living, viz.: Ella A., Frances Arm- 
strong, Virginia, Gilbert Hay, Barbara, and 
\'ictoria. 

Mr. Hoffman is vice-president of the 
.-\merican Statistical .Association : a Fellow 
of the Royal Statistical Society of London ; 
and a member of the American Economic 
.Association, American .Association for La- 
bor Legislation, American Public Health 



148 



BIOGRAPHICAL CYCLOPEDIA 



Association, American Association for the 
Study and Prevention of Tuberculosis, 
American Academy of Political and Social 
Science, the National Civic Federation, and 
other organizations of similar purpose. He 
holds the Gold Medal of the Louisiana Pur- 
chase Exposition at St. Louis, Missouri, in 
1904, for the Prudential Company's exhibit 
of insurance methods and results. Besides 
his writings he has lectured on insurance 
topics at Harvard, the University of 
Wisconsin, Columbia University, the Whar- 
ton School of Finance of the LTniver- 
sity of Pennsylvania, and Cornell Uni- 
versity. In 1909 he was appointed by the 
Secretary of State a representative of tlie 
United States Government at the Interna- 
tional Actuarial Congress, held in \'ienna ; 
and the International Statistical Institute, 
held in Paris. 

Such in brief is the chronological record 
of a man who to-day stands without a peer 
in the amount of original investigation he 
has accomplished in the modern science of 
life insurance and statistics, with its multi- 
tudinous and varied co-ordinate interests. 
The wide scope and thoroughness of his 
researches are indicated by the titles of his 
numerous publications, the most important 
of which are mentioned below : 

"Vital Statistics of the Negro" (in 
Arena, 1892) ; "Suicide and Modern Civil- 
ization" (Arena, 1893) ; "Sex in relation to 
Suicide" {Quarterly Publications, Ameri- 
can Statistical Association, 1894) ; "The 
Jew as a Life Risk" (Spectator, 1895) ; 
"Race Traits and Tendencies of the Ameri- 
can Negro" (1896); "Suicide Record of 
American Cities" (Spectator, annually, 
1896-1908) ; "Tornadoes and Tornado In- 
surance" (Spectator, 1896, revised 1901); 
"Fatal Accidents in Coal Mining" (Min- 
eral Industry, Vol. VI, 1897) ; "Street Rail- 
way Accidents" (Spectator, 1897) ; "Fatal 
Accidents in Coal Mines in North Amer- 
ica" (Engineering and Mining Journal, an- 
nually, 1898-1908) ; "The Portuguese Pop- 
ulation in the United States" (Quarterly 
Publications, American Statistical Associa- 



tion, 1899) ; "History of the Prudential In- 
surance Company of America, 1875-1900" 
(part of exhibit at Paris Exposition, 
1900) ; "Practical use of Vital Statistics" 
(Proceedings of the New Jersey Sanitary 
Association, 1900) ; "Industrial Insurance 
and the Prevention of Tuberculosis" (pa- 
per read before the International Congress 
on Tuberculosis, London, 1901 ; "Taxation 
of Life Insurance" (Public Policy, 1901); 
"Race and Mortality" (Medical Examiner 
and Practitioner, October, 1902) ; "The 
Negro as a Life Risk" (Spectator, 1902) ; 
"Marriage and Mortality" (Spectator, 
1902) ; "Conditions of Labor and Life in 
Anthracite Coal Mining" (Engineering and 
Mining Journal, 1902 ) ; "The Vital Statis- 
tics of the Census of 1900" (Quarterly 
Publications, American Statistical Associa- 
tion, 1902) ; "Life Insurance of Children" 
(Monitor, 1903); "Medical and Social As- 
pects of Child Labor" (paper read at Na- 
tional Conference of Charities and Correc- 
tion, 1903) ; "Life Insurance as a Science" 
(St. Louis Exposition, 1904) ; "Handbook 
and Reference Guide to the Prudential Ex- 
hibits, St. Louis, 1904"; "Fatal Accidents 
in Metal Mining in the United States" (En- 
gineering and Mining Journal, 1904) ; "The 
Statistical Laws of Tuberculosis" (Mary- 
land Medical Journal, 1904) ; "The Uni- 
versal Old Age Pension System of New 
Zealand" (Spectator, 1905) ; "Family Ex- 
penditures for Life Insurance" (Spectator, 
1905); "Science and Economics of Insur- 
ance" (Cyclopedia Americana, Vol. \TII, 
1905) ; "Workingmen's Insurance and Old 
Age Pensions" (Proceedings of Conference 
of Charities and Corrections, 1905) ; "In- 
dustrial Insurance" (Annals, American 
Academy of Political and Social Science, 
1905) ; "Government Life Insurance in 
New Zealand" (Spectator, 1905) ; "The 
British System of Post Office Life Insur- 
ance" (Spectator, 1905) ; "Federal Super- 
vision of Insurance" (Viezvs, 1905) ; "Phy- 
sical and Medical Aspects of Labor and 
Industry" (Annals, American Academy of 
Political and Social Science, 1906) ; "Prin- 



BIOGR-\PHICAL CYCLOPEDIA 



149 



ciples and Elements of Iiidnstrial Insur- 
ance" (Proceedings, F"ifth International Ac- 
tuarial Congress, Berlin, 1906) ; "The Gen- 
eral Death Rate of I,arge American Cities" 
(Quarterly Publications, American Statis- 
tical Association, 1906) ; "Industrial Insur- 
ance by Savings Banks" (Insurance Press, 
1907) : "The Relation of Occupation to Tu- 
berculosis" (Medical P.xaminer and Prac- 
titioner. 1907) ; "Statistics of Poverty and 
Pauperism" (Proceedings, National Con- 
ference of Charities and Corrections, 1907) ; 
"Government Regulation of Insurance in 
Germany" (address, Viezi's, 1907); "The 
New English and Scotch Mortality and 
Life Tables" (Spectator, 1907) ; "The 
Mortality of Dusty Trades" (address, 
1907) ; "Some Practical Suggestions for 
Improving \'ital Statistics" (Quarterly 
Publications, American Statistical Associa- 
tion, December, 1907) ; "American Statis- 
tics of Acute Diseases" (Spectator, 1907) ; 
"Insurance as an Element of Commerce" 
(Spectator, 1908) ; "The Negro Death Rate 
in 1906" (Spectator, 1908) ; "Accidents in 
Industry" (Nezv Encyclopedia of Social 
Reform) ; "Industrial Insurance in Ger- 
many" (American Underwriter, 1908) ; 
"Problems of Social Statistics and Social 
Research" (Quarterly Publications, Amer- 
ican Statistical Association, 1908 1 ; "The 
American Death Rate in 1906" (Spectator, 



1908) ; "The Life Insurance Progress of 
New Zealand, 1897- 1906" {Spectator, 
1908) ; "The Principal Causes of Death in 
the L'nited States" (Spectator, 1908); 
"The Problem of Poverty and Pensions in 
Old Age" (American Journal of Sociology, 

1908) ; "Tuberculosis as an Industrial Dis- 
ease" (address. International Tuberculosis 
Congress, Washington, 1908) ; "Occupa- 
tion Mortalit)' Statistics of England and 
Wales" (Spectator, 1908) ; "Industrial Ac- 
cidents" (Bulletin, U. S. Bureau of Labor, 
July. 1908) ; "The Mortality from Con- 
sumption in Dusty Trades" (the same, No- 
vember, 1908) ; "State Pensions and Annui- 
ties in Old Age" (Quarterly Publications, 
American .Statistical Association, March, 

1909) ; "The Relation of Life Insurance In- 
stitutions to the Problem of Tuberculosis 
Prevention" (address delivered at the In- 
ternational Tuberculosis Congress, Phila- 
delphia, 1909) ; "The Decline in the Birth 
Rate" (North American Revieiv, May, 
1909) ; "Economic and Political Considera- 
tions of State Insurance in the L'nited 
States, 1 860- 1 908" (an address delivered 
before the International Actuarial Con- 
gress, Vienna, 1909) ; "Mortality from 
Consumption in Certain Occupations" 
(Bulletin, U. S. Bureau of Labor, May, 
1909.) 



BENJAMIN A. ROBINSON, M. D. 

NEWARK 



BI-.\JAML\ A. ROBINSON, M. D., of 
Newark, was born in Newark June 
3, 1862, his parents being Morton and 
Ann (Collins) Robinson. His pedigree in 
the direct line is as follows: Rowland Rob- 
inson (I), married Mary Allen (grand- 
daughter of Governor Henry Bull ) ; Gover- 
nor William Robinson (2), married Abigail 
Gardner; Chris. Robinson (3), married Ru- 
hamah Champlin ; Chris. C. Robinson (4) 



married Elizabeth Anthony ; Thurston Rob- 
inson (5), married Sarah Perry; Morton 
Robinson (6), married Ann Collins; Ben- 
jamin Anthony Robinson (7). He received 
his general education in the Ninth Ward 
public school of Newark and the Newark 
.Academy, later taking the couse in Bryant 
& Stratton's Business College. He then en- 
tered the house of William R. Foster & Co., 
of New York City, as bookkeeper, but gave 



ISO 



BIOGRAPHICAL CYCLOPEDIA 



up that employment on account of ill-health 
went west, and for eleven years was en- 
gaged in the cattle business on the plains. 
Being recalled to the east by illness of his 
father, he presently took up the study of 
medicine. He has been engaged in the ac- 
tive practice of his profession since March, 
1892. Dr. Robinson is a member of the 
Newark Camera Club, of the Essex County 
Medical Association, the American Medi- 



cal Association, Kane Lodge, No. 55, Free 
and Accepted Masons, Union Chapter, No. 
7, Royal Arch Masons, and Kane Council, 
No. 2, R. and S. M. and Salaam Tem- 
ple. 

He married, November 29, 1892, Alice 
O'Donnell. They have had six children, 
Benjamin Perry, Dorothy May, John 
Thurston, Rachel R. (deceased), George 
Pearse, and Barbara Alice (deceased). 



WILLIAM DIMOND 

NEWARK 



WILLIAM DIMOND, Doctor of 
Veterinary Surgery, of Newark, is 
the son of William and Catherine Smith 
Dimond. His mother was a daughter of 
Charles Smith, and his paternal grand- 
father was John Dimond. On his father's 
side he is descended from a Huguenot fam- 
ily who were driven from France and set- 
tled near Dublin, in Ireland. He was born 
September 15, 1859, i" '^tw York City, 
where he attended the public schools and 
New York University. He became an ap- 
prentice to the printers' trade and followed 
his vocation as compositor, at the same time 
pursuing a course of study in the Amer- 
ican Veterinary College in New York City, 
from which he was graduated with the de- 
gree of D. V. S. in 1883. He became house 
surgeon and assistant to Professor A. F. 
Liautard in the American Veterinary Hos- 
pital. 

In 1885 he began the active practice of 
his profession in New York City, and in 
the latter part of 1886 entered the employ- 
ment of the United States Government as 
an inspector in the Bureau of Animal In- 
dustry of the Department of Agriculture. 
He was made Chief Inspector for New Jer- 
sey, in 1887, at a time when the contagious 
disease of pleura-pneumonia was prevalent 
among cattle in various parts of the State, 
and in the work of stamping out this dis- 



ease he was very energetic and successful. 
Resigning his position in 1889 he went to 
Oregon and there resumed the practice of 
his profession, but returned to Newark in 
1891, where he has since resided, being ac- 
tively and successfully engaged in veterin- 
ary practice, and in the livery business. 

Dr. Dimond has also been prominent in 
political and public affairs. He was nom- 
inated for member of the Assembly in 
1899; served one term (1898-1899) in the 
Newark Board of Aldermen; receiAcd the 
nomination for Commissioner of the Board 
of Public Works in the spring of 1900, and 
in June, 1900, was appointed by Mayor 
James M. Seymour Commissioner of Ex- 
cise for a term of two years. He was 
warden of the Essex County Jail for a 
period of three years and is now, in 1909, 
serving a second term by appointment from 
Mayor Jacob Haussling, as President of the 
Board of Assessment Commissioners for 
local improvements. 

He is Vice-President of the Lincoln and 
Eureka Building and Loan Associations, 
and a member of the Jeffersonian Club, 
the Joel Parker Association, the Gottfried 
Krueger Association, the Free and Accept- 
ed Masons, and the Order of Heptasophs; 
Vice-President of the Union Club of New- 
ark, Vice-President of the Warren Realty 
Company, Director of The Cottage Realty 



BIOGRAPHICAL CYCLOPEDIA 



151 



Company, and a member of the Forest 
Tliil Field Club. In uvtry capacity be bas 
displayed ability, integrity of character, 
patriotism, and a deep interest in the ad- 
vancement of the community. He mar- 



ried Emeline Smith, daughter of Charles 
Smith, of Putnam County, New York, and 
bas had five children, two of whom died viz., 
Helen and Grace, while three, Thomas, 
Katharine and William, Jr., are living. 



HENRY V. CONDICT 

JERSEY CITY 



HEXRY V. CONDICT, one of the rep 
resentative members of the Hudson 
County bar, was born in Littleton, near 
Morristown, Morris County, New Jersey, 
in 1853. He is the son of Silas B. Condict, 
a grandson of Judge Silas Condict, and a 
great-grandson of Colonel Ebenezer Con- 
dict. His family bas occupied a position of 
prominence in New Jersey for over two 
hundred years. 

Henry \'. Condict received bis prelimi- 
nary education in the schools of his native 
county and subsequently entered Phillips 
Academy in Andover, Massachusetts, from 
which institution be was graduated in 1872, 
and from the Columbia College Law School 
in 1877. He was a student in the office of 
Frederick G. Burnbam, Morristown, New 
Jersey, and in the offices of the Honorable 
Robert Gilchrist and the late Chancellor 
Alexander T. McGill, in Jersey City, and 
was admitted to the bar of New Jersey as 



an attorney in November, 1877, being made 
a counsellor at law in November, 1881. Es- 
tablishing himself in the practice of his pro- 
fession in Jersey City, be became a member 
of the law firm of Randolph, Condict & 
Black of that city, and upon the retirement 
from the firm of Mr. Joseph F. Randolph, 
be formed and became the senior member of 
the firm of Condict, Black & Drayton. That 
firm was dissolved in 1902 and thereafter 
Mr. Condict formed, and is still the senior 
member of the fimi of Condict, Condict & 
Boardman. 

He married, in 1879, Anna Hudson, 
daughter of the late Honorable Ephraim 
Hudson of the New York bar, by whom he 
bas had three children, Hudson, Edith and 
Cuyler. He bas devoted bis attention main- 
ly to the real estate branch of the law, and 
has large real estate interests in Hudson 
County and other parts of New Jersey. 



ISAAC A. HALL 

PATERvSON 



ISAAC A. HALL, of Paterson, one of the 
foremost manufacturers and a prominent 
and public spirited citizen of that commu- 
nity, was born in Paterson, October 9. 
i860. His father, Albert Hall, emigrated 
from Staleybridge, England, arriving in 
Paterson in September, 1857, and in i860 
started to operate an establishment for the 



manufacture of reeds and harness for silk 
weaving, the first of its kind in this coun- 
try. He conducted the business success- 
fully until his death, August 4, 1870. The 
business was continued in a small way un- 
til January 2, 1883, when the present pro- 
prietor was admitted to partnership and 
the firm of I. A. Hall & Co., was formed. 



152 



BIOGRAPHICAL CYCLOPEDIA 



On the night of the same day, by a singu- 
lar and most unfortunate coincidence, the 
company's factory, then situated at No. 
185 Division Street (now Hamilton Ave- 
nue), took fire and was burned to the 
ground with all its contents, very little in- 
surance being carried on the property. 
This reverse of fortune did not, however, 
long retard the development of the re- 
organized concern, which at once resumed 
active operations with an annex at No. no 
Straight Street. 

On May 6, 1886, Isaac A. Hall pur- 
chased entire control and removed the 
business to more commodious quarters at 
Nos. 4, 6 and 8 West Street, where it con- 
tinued until 1888, the present fine structure 
at No. 30 and 36 Hamilton Avenue being 
then erected. Through close application, 
excellent judgment, and rare business 
qualifications Mr. Hall has made his con- 
cern the largest of its kind in the United 
States devoted to the manufacture of gen- 
eral weavers' supplies. The firm enjoys a 
peculiar prominence in Paterson on ac- 
count of the intimate relations which it 
sustains to the great productive interests 
of that city. Its products are in extensive 
use throughout this country and also are 
shipped in considerable quantities to the 
principal European countries. The owner- 
ship of many valuable patents is vested in 
it, and in addition the company is manu- 
facturers' agent for large French and Eng- 
lish interests. Some two hundred opera- 
tives are employed in the works. 

Besides his Paterson industry Mr. Hall 
has a similar manufacturing interest at Al- 
lentown, Pennsylvania. The size of the mill 
is 50x160 feet, four stories and basement. 
He is also the owner of the well known 
Hall Mill in Fulton Street, Paterson, which 
was erected by him in 1898 for renting 
purposes. This is one of the finest struc- 
tures in the city devoted to manufacturing 
uses, consisting of four stories and a base- 
ment, 50x330 feet. It is operated by a 
great Corliss engine and three boilers, and 
has a lighting system generated by a di- 



rect connected high speed engine and dy- 
namo capable of producing one thousand 
seven hundred lights. Mr. Hall has also 
just erected another mill known as the 
New Hall Mill, situated on Harrison Street, 
being a twin to the Hall Mill. This fine 
structure will be devoted to manufactur- 
ing purposes, consisting of four stories 
and a basement, 52x345. This mill will 
also be operated by a Corliss engine and 
three boilers, also a lighting system gen- 
erated by a direct connected high speed 
engine and dynamo. 

He is a popular citizen of Paterson, both 
in business and social circles. He is one 
of the active and representative members 
of the Republican party, and has frequent- 
ly been offered opportunities for elevation 
to honorable political positions, such as 
those of Mayor and Member of Congress, 
but, preferring the pursuits of a business 
man and private citizen, he has uniformly 
declined to accept political office. He has, 
however, performed his share of public 
service in non-partisan connections. He 
was appointed Commissioner of Public In- 
struction in February, 1893. This position 
he resigned in March, 1897, to become one 
of the members of the Board of Park 
Commissioners. He has continued to serve 
on the Park Board ever since, and enjoys 
a reputation as one of its most valuable and 
conscientious members. He is at present 
Chairman of the Eastside Park Committee. 

Mr. Hall is President of the Union 
Transit Company, Vice-President of the 
Hamilton Printing Company, and the Title 
Guarantee Land Company, a director of the 
Passaic County Building Association and 
other land companies, a member of the Ad- 
visory Board of the Paterson General Hos- 
pital, and an associate member of the 
Young men's Christian Association. He is 
a member of the Hamilton Club of Pater- 
son, the North Jersey Country Club of 
Warren Point, the Livingston Club of Al- 
lentown. Pa., the North Jersey Agricultural 
and Driving Association, the Mecca Club 
of Paterson, the Paterson Cricket Club, the 



BIOGRAPHICAL CYCLOPEDIA 



153 



Hibernia Bowling Club, the Paterson Silk 
Industry Association, the Silk Association 
of America, the Lake Ilopatcong Club, and 
the Lotos and Knickerbocker Clubs of New 
York City. He is prominent in several fra- 
ternal orders, being a Past Sachem of the 
Osseo Tribe, Improved Order of Red Men, 
a member of Paterson Lodge, Benevolent 
Protective Order of Elks, of Ivanhoe 
Lodge, Free and Accepted Masons, of 
Chapter Rose Croix, Council of Princes of 



Jerusalem, of Paterson Lodge of Perfec- 
tion, of the Sovereign Consistory (Jersey 
City), and of Mecca Temple, Mystic Shrine 
(New York). He also belongs to the 
North Jersey Automobile Club, and is a di- 
rector of the Nassau & Suffolk Lighting 
Company. He was appointed by Governor 
Fort to be one of New Jersey's commis- 
sioners to the Alaska- Yukon E.xposition, 
and spent several months at the Exposition, 
performing the duties required. 



FRANCIS REYNOLDS HAUSSLING, B.S., M.D. 

NEWARK 



FRANCIS REYNOLDS HAUSS- 
LING, M. D., was born July 30, 1875, 
in Newark, New Jersey. His father was 
Henry A. Haussling, a well-known mer- 
chant of Newark, and his uncle, Jacob 
Haussling, is at the present time, 1909, 
the Mayor of Newark. His mother was 
Emma A. (Lebkuecher) Haussling, who.se 
brother, Julius A. Lebkuecher, was Mayor 
of Newark in 1895. The Haussling family 
is descended from a long line of German 
ancestors ; the first of whom settled in this 
country in 1848, in Newark. 

Francis Reynolds Haussling received his 
early education in the public schools of New- 
ark and the Newark Academy. He was grad- 
uated from Princeton University in 1897. 
Selecting the study of medicine as his future 



profession he entered Columbia University, 
College of Physicians and Surgeons, from 
which he graduated in 190 1. He was in- 
terne at St. Luke's Hospital, New York, 
from 1901 to 1903, and also at the Sloane 
Maternity Hospital and St. Mary's Free 
Hospital for children. The years 1903 and 
1904 he spent abroad studying medicine in 
\''ienna, Prague and Berlin, since which 
time he has been located in Newark, prac- 
ticing medicine and surgery. At present he 
holds the following positions in Newark 
hospitals : surgeon to the Newark City Hos- 
pital, visiting surgeon to the Newark Ger- 
man Hospital, assistant surgeon to St. 
Michael's Hospital and consultant to the 
Home for Incurables and Hospital. 



ALEXANDER SIMPSON 



JERSEY CITY 

Al.EXANDER SIMPSON, counselor- 
at-law, was born June 12, 1871, in 
Jersey City, New Jersey. His father was 
Henry Simpson, and his mother Sarah Ma- 
son Simpson, both of whom came to this 
country in 1865 from Manchester, England, 



and settled in Jersey City, New Jersey. 
Alexander Simpson received his early edu- 
cation in the public schools of Jersey City. 
He then was admitted to Columbia L^niver- 
sity from which lie did not graduate. Going 
abroad he studied French literature in Paris, 



154 



BIOGRAPHICAL CYCLOPEDIA 



under a private tutor, and returning to Jer- 
sey City he did newspaper work. Taking 
up the study of law under the guidance of 
Judge Alfred B. Dayton, (whose grand- 
father was one of the signers of the State 
Constitution in 1776), he was admitted to 
the bar as attorney in 1892 and became 
counselor at law in 1895. 

As a successful lawyer he has a phenome- 
nal record. Up to the present date, 1909, 
he has been the defending lawyer in twenty- 
five murder trials and did not lose a case by 
having the accused executed. He was the 
defending lawyer in the trial for the murder 
of Mrs. Whitmore — a case which attracted 
attention all over this country, and resulted 
in the acquittal of the defendant. His 



specialty is negligent accident cases, from 
which he usually wins large verdicts, and 
contested will cases in which he is generally 
successful. He is also a member of the Bar 
of the State of New York. In politics Mr. 
Simpson is a Republican. He has held the 
office of County Counsel to the County 
Board of Health and was a member of the 
New Jersey State Legislature in 1897. Mr. 
Simpson belongs to the Masonic Order, and 
is a member of the Players' Club of New 
York City. The Simpson family to which 
Henry Simpson (the father of Alexander 
Simpson) belongs, is English and can be 
traced back many years. His mother, Sar- 
ah Alason Simpson, is a descendant of the 
Mason family of England. 



ELVIN WILLIAMSON CRANE 

NEWARK 



ELVIN WILLIAMSON CRANE, one 
of the most eminent and successful 
lawyers of the State of New Jersey and a 
recognized leader of the Democratic party of 
that State, was born in Brooklyn, New York, 
October 20, 1853. He was the son of Sam- 
uel Crane and Naomi Williamson, and was 
descended on both sides from old and nota- 
ble colonial ancestry. His mother was a 
daughter of Jacob Williamson, of Asbury, 
Warren County, New Jersey, and a grand- 
daughter of General James Williamson, 
who figured with distinction in the War of 
1812. 

The family removed from Brooklyn to 
Newark, New Jersey, while Mr. Crane was 
quite young, and it was in the public schools 
of that city that he received his rudimentary 
education, later becoming a student in St. 
Paul's School, then conducted by that well- 
known instructor, the Reverend Joseph 
Smith. After completing his studies, young 
Crane entered the law office of Joseph P. 
Bradley and G. N. Abeel, and from the 
very outset exhibited a predilection for the 



profession in which he was destined to win 
so high and honorable a place. Even as a 
boy he displayed executive ability of a pro- 
nounced order, systematizing the routine 
business of the office and proving himself 
exceptionally useful to his employers, with 
whom he remained until the firm was dis- 
solved, owing to the elevation of Mr. Brad- 
ley to a seat on the bench of the Supreme 
Court of the United States. The practice 
being continued by Mr. Abeel, Mr. Crane 
remained in his service and became his as- 
sistant, serving in that capacity for a period 
of eight years, during which time he did 
most of the pleading and assumed almost 
complete charge of the causes tried before 
the Court of Special Sessions. 

Mr. Crane was admitted to the New Jer- 
sey bar as an attorney in February, 1875, 
and as a counsellor in February, 1882. As 
assistant to Colonel Abeel, who was then 
Prosecutor of the Pleas of Essex County, 
Mr. Crane acquired a thorough knowledge 
of criminal law and might well have been 
quoted as an authority on all questions aris- 



BIOGRAPHICAL CYCLOPEDIA 



155 



ing in that branch of his profession. When 
Colonel Abeel was succeeded in office by 
Oscar Keen, Mr. Crane was retained as as- 
sistant prosecutor and served as such 
throughout Mr. Keen's entire term. In the 
meantime, his peculiar qualifications for the 
place had made themselves so evident that 
upon the expiration of Mr. Keen's term of 
office, in 1888, he was appointed by Gover- 
nor Greene as Prosecutor, a promotion that 
was thoroughly merited, and for which he 
was probably better equipped than any 
member of the bar within the State. It has 
been said of him in this connection that 
"the abilit)' he displayed in the management 
of his cases, the painstaking way in which 
he conducted his trials, and his integrity, 
combined with his fairness and undoubted 
honest)' of purpose in all things, brought 
him the esteem and confidence of the com- 
munity and earned for him the popular ap- 
proval of a large number of the citizens of 
the State." \\'hen his term expired, there 
was practically no opposition to his reap- 
pointment, which Governor Werts made 
for a second term of five years. During his 
incumbency of the Prosecutor's office, he 
successfully prosecuted many of the most 
important criminal cases that have ever 
been brought to trial in the State of New 
Jersey, among those which attracted the 
widest attention being the prosecution of 
Emma Wood, "Fiddler" Smith, and Henry 
Kohl. Leaving the office in 1899, after 
eighteen years of excellent and commend- 
able ser%-ice in the public interests, Mr. 
Crane devoted himself to private practice 
and became famous as a criminal lawyer, 
his knowledge in that direction being second 
to that of no one in the State or section. 

For more than twenty years Mr. Crane 
was an active and influential factor in the 
councils of the Democratic party of the 
State, and he gave much of his time and 
abiht)' to the advancement of the cause of 
that political organization. He was chaii- 
man of the Democratic City Central Com- 
mittee for a time and in 1887 was elected 
to the L^slature as an assembljTnan from 



his district. He was made a trustee of the 
Newark Cit>' Home in 1881. In 1898 he 
was selected as the Democratic candidate 
for Governor of the State, and, after a vig- 
orous campaign, was defeated for the high 
office by the narrow margin of less than 
6.000 votes. For years he was president 
of the Joel Parker Association, an office he 
still retained at the time of his death, and 
he was a member and former president of 
the Jefferson Club. When he died, he was 
filling the position of County Counsel. He 
was a member of the Masonic order and a 
Mystic Shriner, and held membership also 
in the Benevolent and Protective Order of 
Elks. 

It has been truly said of him that he 
served with credit, fidelity and distinction in 
ever)' capacity that he was called upon to 
fill. In his time he was the most represent- 
ative man allied with criminal law in the 
State. A contemporary writer, in chroni- 
cling his death, has said that "in all the of- 
fices he held Elvin Crane was always known 
as a capable, efficient official and one whose 
motto was fairness to all — both complain-, 
ant and defendant His friends — many of 
long years standing — are legion and his 
death carries sorrow into more homes prob- 
ably than would that of any other resident 
of Essex count)'. He numbered his friends 
among no special class, and every walk of 
life contributed a large quota to that wide 
circle. His charities were numberless 
though he desired that most of his gifts 
should be given anon)'mously." 

Mr. Crane died at his home in Newark, 
January 9, 1909, after an illness lasting a 
year, although up to a few weeks before the 
end his courage and splendid vitality en- 
abled him to attend to his work and fight oflf 
the steady encroachment of disease. The 
general regard in which he was popularly 
held is well expressed by the resolutions 
passed by the Jefferson Qub, wherein it is 
recorded that "he was recognized by his 
brethren in the legal profession as an able 
and painstaking member of the bar. In his 
various official relations as l^islator, pros- 



156 



BIOGRAPHICAL CYCLOPEDIA 



ecutor of the pleas and county counsel, he 
exhibited ability and devotion to the public 
interests which merit praise and eulogy. As 
a Democrat he was held in high esteem for 
many years and when honored by his party 
he fully merited the confidence reposed in 
him not only by the Democratic party but 
by the general public." 

Mr. Crane married July 9, 1879, Emma J. 
Esch, daughter of Jacob Esch, by whom he 
was survived. To this union were born 



three children, all of whom died in child- 
hood. Mr. Crane made his mark upon his 
time ; and his memory will be long held in 
reverence throughout that part of New Jer- 
sey where he was best known. His career 
will be pointed to as an example worthy of 
emulation on the part of future officials 
who follow in his footsteps and his admin- 
istration of the prosecutor's office will be 
especially commended as deserving of imi- 
tation. 



CHARLES M. DECKER 

ORANGE 



CHARLES M. DECKER, one of the 
most progressive business men and 
public-spirited citizens of the Oranges, was 
born in Wellesburg, Chemung County, 
New York, in November, 1850. He is de- 
scended from both old Holland and old 
New England stock, which accounts for 
many of those traits of character which 
have made him conspicuous as an organizer 
of large interests and a financier of keen 
judgement. A foreword of his ancestry is 
found in the "History of Chemung County", 
which thus refers to his grandfather and 
grandmother : 

"The first white child born in the town 
of Ashland, of which there is any record, 
was Eunice Kelsey, her birthday having 
been on March 16, 1789, her father being 
Abner Kelsey, Eunice grew to woman- 
hood and married Jacob Decker." 

This Jacob Decker was a native of 
Orange County, New York, whence he re- 
moved to Chemung County. Among the 
settlers of the town of Montgomery, 
Orange County, between 1768 and 1778, 
was Johannes Decker, who is authoritative- 
ly believed to have been a grandson of 
Abraham Decker, who is known to have 
come from Holland and settled at Copake, 
New York, in 1757. Among the six sons 



and two daughters of Jacob Decker and 
Eunice Kelsey was Harrison Decker, who 
was born in Wellesburg, about 1821. He 
married Harriet, daughter of Charles 
Tubbs, a descendant of William Tubbs of 
Duxbury, Mass., who was admitted a free- 
man of the Plymouth Colony in 1637, vol- 
unteered against the Pequot Indians in 
June of the same year, and was a member 
of Captain Miles Standish's famous mili- 
tary company. 

Charles M. Decker was born of this mar- 
riage. As a boy he was ambitious and self- 
reliant to a noticeable degree. He acquired 
his early education in the public school of 
his native town, and at the age of fourteen 
he threw aside his books and started out to 
see something of the larger world beyond 
his native environment. He went direct to 
New York in search of employment, and 
through the influence of Stephen D. Her- 
man, of Orange, an old friend of his 
father's, he secured a situation in the groc- 
ery house of Benjamin F. Cairnes. In the 
following year he entered the employ of 
Mr. Herman, and remained with him and 
his successors till 1869. 

After a brief engagement in the butter 
business in New York he celebrated his 
majority by returning to Orange, buying 
the business of his former employer, Mr. 



BIOGRAPHICAL CYCLOPEDIA 



157 



Cairnes, and inaugurating an entirely new- 
policy of management. He stocked his 
store with the best goods the market of- 
fered, established a delivery system, then a 
decided innovation in the Oranges, sold on 
short credit, and gradually diverted local 
trade from the Xew York to a home 
market. In this venture he was eminently 
successful from the start, and was soon 
enabled to establish business connections 
with all the Oranges and their neighboring 
communities. 

In 1890 he erected in Orange one of the 
handsomest business blocks in Essex Coun- 
ty, and since that time has increased his 
business properties by the erection of sev- 
eral handsome buildings in Essex and 
Union counties. From 1893 to 1903 he was 
president of the Orange National Bank, 
one of the soundest financial institutions in 
Eastern Xew Jersey, and on resigning that 
office became its Vice-President. He also 
became a director of the Savings Invest- 
ment and Trust Company of East Orange. 



To both these institutions he gave his abil- 
ity, enterprise, and judgment that had char- 
acterized the up-building of his large per- 
sonal business. 

Mr. Decker married a daughter of Al- 
fred and Margaret E. (Peck) Jones, rep- 
resenting two of the oldest families of the 
locality formerly known as Pecktovvn, now 
East Orange. Nine children have been 
born of this marriage, viz. : Margaret, 
Harrison, Charles M. Jr., (deceased), Har- 
riet L., Arthur, May, Richard F., Katharyn, 
and Laraus (deceased). 

Air. Decker is a member of the Essex 
County and Orange clubs. Personally, he 
has strong domestic tastes and impresses 
all who meet him with his claims upon their 
confidence. To his friends he is ever ac- 
cessible, cordial, and generous; to strangers 
he is dignified, courteous, affable, and win- 
ning. He is a man of deliberate, yet posi- 
tive character, and of marked executive 
ability, and his life has been both busy and 
useful. 



JAMES SNAPE 

NEWARK 



JAMES SNAPE, who is one of the rep- 
resentative citizens and successful men 
of Newark, has occupied a responsible po- 
sition with the T. B. Peddie Company for 
over thirty years, and with that concern he 
is still connected, in 1909. He is the son of 
Samuel and Ann (McGregor) Snape, and 
was born in Marion, New Jersey, Novem- 
ber 3, 1863. He came to Newark with his 
parents at an early age, and has resided in 
the locality now embraced in the fifteenth 
ward for more than forty years. He re- 
ceived his education in the Burnet Street 
Public School and the High School of New- 
ark. Since attaining his majority he has tak- 
en an active interest in politics and has 
gained an enviable reputation as a supporter 
of the Republican party, serving as Secre- 



tary and Chairman of the Fifteenth Ward 
Executive Committee. He was three times 
elected a member of the Board of Educa- 
tion, serving during the years of 1903 to 
1907 inclusive, in which board he took a 
very active part. The advent of the small 
appointive Board of Education cut one year 
from the last term for which he was elected. 
He is a member of the Republican Indian 
League, secretary of the Smith Gun Club, 
secretary of General Runyon Council, No. 
1687, Royal Arcanum, a member of Branch 
Brook Conclave No. 784, Improved Order 
of Ileptasophs, North End Camp No. 9694, 
Modern Woodmen of America, and the Es- 
sex County Cricket Club and also a member 
of the Board of Governors of Franklin 
School and various other social and politi- 



158 



BIOGRAPHICAL CYCLOPEDIA 



cal organizations. He is a member of the 
Newark Common Council, in which he is 
active and influential and in that body is 
chairman of the Committees on Public 
Schools, and Fourth of July Celebration and 
a member of the following committees : Fi- 
nance, Construction and Alteration of Build- 



ings, Public ^Markets, Hospitals and Me- 
morial Day Celebration, Smoke Abandon- 
ment, and Humane Society. He married 
Marion Henrietta Kennedy, daughter of 
Morris Kennedy, of Belleville, N. J., by 
whom he has three children: James Clif- 
ford, Florence Harriet and Bessie Marion. 



JOSEPH SPENCER CRANE 



JOSEPH SPENCER CRANE, one of 
the youngest, but one of the most suc- 
cessful civil engineers of the State of New 
Jersey, was born April 8, 1882, in Pitts- 
ton, Pennsylvanfa. He is the son of 
Charles Spencer and Jennie (Miller) Crane. 
His primary education was secured in the 
Wyoming Seminary of Kingston, Penn- 
sylvania, and then he pursued a civil en- 
gineer course in Princeton University, be- 
ing graduated in 1904 with the degree of 
Civil Engineer. Immediately upon com- 
pleting his education he entered upon the 
practice of his profession, being engaged 
by the Central Railroad of New Jersey 
and the Public Service Corporation, and 
was also associated with William P. Field 
of Newark in various civil engineering 
works. In 1908, he engaged in the con- 
tracting business on his own account un- 
der the firm name of Walter E. Isetts & 
Co., Engineers and Contractors, of which 
concern he is Secretary and Vice-Presi- 
dent. In his profession he has been re- 



NEWARK 

markably successful and has already taken 
a front rank, so that he is recognized as 
one of the most prominent and ablest of 
the younger men in the civil engineer and 
contracting business. 

He is an associate member of the Amer- 
ican Society of Civil Engineers, a just 
recognition of what he has accomplished, 
and especially noteworthy as bestowed 
upon so young a man. He is a member of 
Cosmos Lodge, No. 106, Free and Ac- 
cepted Masons, and of the Ancient and 
Accepted Scottish Rite and Salaam Tem- 
ple. He also belongs to the Associated 
Automobile Clubs of New Jersey and the 
Forest Hill Field Club. In his political 
affiliations he is a Republican, and takes an 
interest and an active part in the politics 
of the Eighth Ward of Newark, where he 
is a resident. 

He married, June 23, 1909, Edna F. 
Johnson, daughter of Samuel H. and Fran- 
ces E. (Crane) Johnson. 



LOUIS PLAUT 



L 



NEWARK 

OUIS PLAUT, one of the proprietors school education 



(Of the great mercantile establishment 
in Newark known as the "Bee Hive," was 
born in Hartford, Connecticut, December 
29, 1862, and there received a good public 



He is of German descent, 
his parents being residents of Hesse Darm- 
stadt, Germany. They came to America 
when their eldest sons, L. Simon Plaut and 
Solomon Plaut were four and seven years 



BIOGRAPHICAL CYCLOPEDIA 



159 



old respectively, and settled in Hartford. At 
the age of sixteen Louis Plant moved from 
Hartford to Newark, and entered the pres- 
ent business with his brother, L. Simon 
Plaut, who had been a buyer for Gerson 
Fox, of Hartford, and who had removed to 
Newark in April, 1870, when twenty years 
old and engaged in mercantile business with 
Leopold Fox, a son of Gerson Fox, the firm 
name being Fox & Plaut. L. Simon Plaut 
died in 1886, and by his will left the busi- 
ness to his widow and his brothers, Louis 
and Moses Plaut, and Oscar Michael. The 
active management devolved upon the three 
young men, and they were so successful that 
in 1890 they materially enlarged the store, 
and still carry on a large and flourishing 
business. Started in 1870, when the busi- 
ness gave emplojTTient to only one salesman, 
it has grown steadily until now nine hun- 
dred persons are employed in the various 
departments. The firm name is L. S. Plaut 
& Co., and under the sound and progressive 



business principles which were instituted by 
L. Simon Plaut it has become one of the 
best known firms in New Jersey. 

Louis Plaut is an able and sagacious bus- 
iness man, and during his entire career has 
mantained the confidence and respect of all 
who know him. Genial, affable, and cour- 
teous, he is universally esteemed, and for 
years has occupied a leading place in New- 
ark's business and social circles. He was a 
director of the German National Bank of 
Newark for five years, when he resigned. 
For a number of years he was Treasurer of 
the Progress Club. He is a director of the 
Federal Trust Company, of the Hebrew Or- 
phan Asylum, of the Hebrew Free School, 
and of the Home for Crippled Children, and 
a trustee of Temple Bnai Jeshurun. In 
these and other capacities he has displayed 
great public spirit, sound judgement, and 
benevolence of character. In 1885 Mr. 
Plaut married Miss Carrie Katz. They have 
two children, a son and a daughter. 



WILLIAM HAINES PARRY 

NEWARK 



WILLIAM HAINES PARRY, suc- 
cessful as a lawyer and promment- 
ly active in the Republican politics of New 
Jersey was born November 11, 1877, in 
Mount Holly, New Jersey. He is the son 
of William C. Parry, M. D., and Mary M. 
Haines, and he traces his descent from old 
and notable New Jersey ancestry through 
both the paternal and maternal lines. His 
mother was a native of Hainesport, New 
Jersey, and a member of the well-known 
Haines family, while his father was a lead- 
ing physician of Mount Holly, who served 
as State Senator from his district from 1895 
to 1898. being a Republican of influence and 
standing. 

The younger Parry received his educa- 
tion in the Monrestown Friends' High 
School and the Mount Holly Academy, af- 



terward entering the University of Pennsyl- 
vania, from which he was graduated in the 
class of 1899 ^^''li the degree of Bachelor 
of .Science. He then took a course in the 
University of Michigan I^w School, being 
graduated from that institution in 1901 with 
the degree of Bachelor of Laws. He was 
admitted to the bar of Michigan as an at- 
torney in June, 1901, and began the practice 
of his profession in Newark, that same 
year, being admitted to the bar of his native 
State as an attorney. In 1902 he became a 
member of the law firm of Ilampson & Par- 
ry, with which he is still associated in gen- 
eral practice. His standing as a lawyer is 
rjiie that does him credit, and his ability has 
been demonstrated by the superior manner 
in which he has handled the litigation en- 
trusted to his hands. He has succeeded in 



i6o 



BIOGRAPHICAL CYCLOPEDIA 



his profession and gained a repute for him- 
self that comes to few men at his age. 

Mr. Parry is a RepubHcan poHtically and 
he takes an active part in the campaigns of 
his party. He is secretary of the New Jer- 
sey State League of Republican Clubs, a 
member of the executive committee of the 
Republican League for Limited Franchises 
and Equal Taxation, and a speaker for the 
latter organization, his eloquence serving 
well the cause in question. He is Recorder 



for the Town of Nutley, New Jersey, and 
counsel for the Bank of Nutley and the 
Franklin Building and Loan Association. 
He was Chancellor for Crystal Lodge, 
Knights of Pythias, is now a deputy Grand 
Chancellor of the Knights of Pythias of 
New Jersey, a member of Kempton Coun- 
cil, Royal Arcanum, and of the Fortnightly 
Club of Nutley. He married March 14, 
IQ08, Julia Emorette Tuthill, of Homer, 
N. Y." 



JAMES PARKER 

PERTH AMBOY 



JAMES PARKER, eighth child of James 
and Gertrude (Skinner) Parker, was 
born in Bethlehem, Hunterdon County, 
New Jersey, during the temporary residence 
of his parents in that place, March i, lyjb. 
He was educated in Columbia College, 
where he was graduated in 1793, second in 
his class. He then entered the counting 
house of John Murray, intending to be a 
merchant. On the death of his father he 
was compelled to return home as acting ex- 
ecutor of his estate, a task involving the 
support of a large circle of dependents, and 
requiring assiduous labor and much ac- 
quaintance with the law. 

In 1806, when about thirty years of age, 
he was elected a member of the New Jersey 
Legislature and was re-elected eight succes- 
sive years; again from 1815 to 1819, and 
afterward in 1827-8. He was a federalist 
of the school of Washington and Hamilton. 
In 1806 he was appointed one of five com- 
missioners to settle the boundaries and jur- 
isdiction of the states of New York and 
New Jersey. In 1827 this commission wa^ 
renewed, and he was again made a member 
With Theodore Frelinghuysen and L. Q. C. 
Elmer he signed the boundary agreement 
between New York and New Jersey, Sep- 
tember 16, 1833. In 1829 he was made Col- 
lector of Perth Amboy, then a place of 



much commerce. In 1832 and again in 1834 
he was elected to Congress, serving two 
terms with much distinction. In 1844 h^ 
was elected a member of the convention for 
the formation of a new constitution for 
New Jersey. Thus he was engaged in legis- 
lation during at least seventeen years of his 
life, while he also served a long period as 
Mayor of Amboy. 

Though never one of the party of the ma- 
jority in any of the legislative bodies men- 
tioned, he was always a leading and influ- 
ential member. He inaugurated the system 
of public schools in New Jersey, suggesting 
and following up the idea in different legis- 
latures from 1809 to 1817, and the act, 
drawn by him, to create a fund for free 
schools, became a law. Afterward, in the 
constitutional convention, this subject re- 
ceived his careful attention, and at his in- 
stance the New Jersey constitution provid- 
ed that "it shall not be competent for the 
legislature to borrow, appropriate, or use 
the said fund [for the support of common 
schools], or any part thereof, for any pur- 
pose, under any pretense whatever." He 
was the author of the attachment law; the 
law enabling aliens to hold land in the state ; 
the law authorizing commissioners to take 
proof, etc., of deeds ; the law prohibiting, 
under severe penalties, the exportation of 



BIOGRAPHICAL CYCLOPEDIA 



i6i 



slaves from the state, thus ending tlie do- 
mestic slave trade in New Jersey, and of 
laws for the suppression of intemperance, 
for aiding internal improvements, encour- 
aging manufactures, for putting habitual 
drunkards under guardianship, and others 
of similar importance. In the Constitutional 
Convention he reported the hill of rights. 
He was a principal advocate of the con- 
struction of the Delaware and Raritan Ca- 
nal, and a director of that company for 
nearly forty years. His last year's service 
in the Legislature was undertaken with this 
enterprise in view. 

In Congress he was known as a leading 
practical member, a strong "tariff man," a 
defender of the right of petition, aiding 
John Quincy Adams in the struggle for the 
admission of petitions praying the abolition 
of slavery in the District of Columbia, and 
was celebrated for outspoken sincerity and 
honesty. For years he was a trustee of two 
colleges, Princeton and Rutgers, and to the 
latter gave the land whereon the college 
building was erected. In the Protestant 
Episcopal diocesan conventions, as well as 
in his own church in .Amboy, he was promi- 
nent and active. From the beginning he 
was a Vice-President, and for years before 
his death President, of the Xew Jersey His- 
torical Society. As characterized in a me- 
morial address delivered before the New 
Jersey Historical Society, he was "Re 



nowned for purity of character and an m 
tense love for usefulness; independent 
though earnest in his support of what he 
thought right, rather than what was expe- 
dient ; never giving up to party what was 
meant for mankind ; never an aspirant for 
office, and valuing only that popularity 
which follows a good man ; practicing 
warmhearted charity in thought, word, and 
deed, and always evincing an ability more 
than adequate for all he undertook." 

He died in Perth .Amboy, .April i, 1868, 
having attained the age of ninety-two years 
and one month. He married, first, January 
5, 1803. Penelope Butler, daughter of Am- 
boy and Margaret (Coates) Butler. She 
was born IVIarch 3, 1875, ^^^ "^i^d July 25, 
1823. The children of this marriage were: 
I. James Parker, born October 24, 1805, 
died July 12, 1861 ; 2. William Parker, born 
July 18, 1S07; 3. Margaret Elizabeth Park- 
er, born July 14, 1809, died August, 1886; 
4. Gertrude Parker, born August 11, 181 1, 
den, daughter of Samuel Ogden of New- 
died March 17, 1828; 5. Sarah Coates Levy 
Parker, born, July, 1816, died April 21, 
September 20. 1827, Catharine Morris Og- 
1842 ; 6. Cortlandt Parker, born June 27, 
1818, and Penelope Parker, born Septem- 
ber 7, 1824, died 1856. He married second, 
ark, Xew Jersey, and niece of the Honora- 
ble Gouverneur Morris, the statesman, but 
had no issue by this marriage. 



CHARLES C. BLACK 

JERSEY CITY 



CHARLES C. BLACK was born on a 
farm in Burlington county, near 
Mount Holly, New Jersey, on July 29, 
1858. He was prepared for college in the 
Mount Holly .\cademy, and entered Prince- 
ton College in 1874, being graduated in the 
class of 1878. He studied law in Mount 
Holly, and in the L'nivcrsity of Michigan, 
at Ann Arbor. He was admitted to the 



bar of New Jersey as an attorney in June, 
1881, and as a counselor in June, 1884. Af- 
ter being admitted to practice he located in 
Jersey City, and, until his appointment to 
the bench, practiced there under the firm 
name of Black & Dayton. 

Fur five years he served as a member of 
the Hudson County Board of Registration 
under the ballot reform law. He was ap- 



l62 



BIOGRAPHICAL CYCLOPEDIA 



pointed as a member of the State Board 
of Taxation on March 21, 1891, for a term 
of five years, was re-appointed for another 
term in 1896, and again in 1901. He was 
again appointed in 1904 for a term of five 
years. He has made vakiable additions to 
the Hterature of the law in his "Proof and 
Pleadings in Accident Cases," "New Jersey 
Law of Taxation" and "Law and Practice 
in Accident Cases." He was the Demo- 
cratic candidate for Governor in 1904, and 
was subsequently appointed a member of 
The Equal Tax Commission by Governor 



Murphy. Governor Stokes nominated him 
on March 30, 1905, as a member of the 
new Board of Equalization of Taxes, and 
he was at once confirmed by the Senate. 
He served on that board until he was ap- 
pointed a Circuit Judge by Governor Fort, 
on January 22, 1908, to succeed Judge Min- 
turn, who was appointed to the bench of 
the Supreme Court. His term will expire 
in 19 1 5. His circuit comprises the coun- 
ties of Bergen, Morris, Passaic, Sussex and 
Warren. 



CLARENCE SACKETT 

NEWARK 



CLARENCE SACKETT, whose ex- 
pert qualifications as a stenographic 
reporter placed him in the foremost rank 
in that field of endeavor and who has also 
gained repute and high standing as a prac- 
titioner of law, was born in New York City, 
February 22, i860. He is the son of Wil- 
liam E. and Josephine (Findlay) Sackett. 
On the paternal side he traces his descent 
from an old family of English origin, being 
ninth in the direct line from Simon Sackett, 
the earliest ancestor of the Sacketts of 
America. Simon Sackett came to this 
country from England in 1630, settling in 
Connecticut. His posterity has included 
some men of exceptional note, among them 
General Rufus King, of New York. It is 
interesting to note in this connection that 
for five hundred years or more, the Sack- 
etts abroad have been Englishmen of let- 
ters, a predilection that has been strongly 
developed in some of the American repre- 
sentatives of the family. Clarence Sackett 
has himself, in his own work, given evi- 
dence of this distinct trait. He is largely 
a self-educated man, having left school at 
fourteen years of age in order to go to 
work, being employed for a year as a 
messenger carrying news to the metropoli- 



tan newspapers at a period when the lack 
of telephones rendered such service essen- 
tial. 

At fifteen years of age he entered the 
employ of the Pennsylvania Railroad Com- 
pany, at Pier 38, North River, under John 
Whittaker, then the agent, and he re- 
mained thus engaged for five years. In the 
meantime he studied shorthand writing, 
having no teacher but applying himself to 
his books with an energy and persistence 
that were bound to bring knowledge of the 
science. He acquired speed, accuracy and 
practical expertness as a stenographic re- 
porter by attending church lectures, espec- 
ially the Friday night talks of the late T. 
DeWitt Talmage, in his Tabernacle on 
Schermerhorn Street, Brooklyn, in which 
city young Sackett then lived with his par- 
ents. By taking down these discourses, 
the lad became so excellent a reporter that 
when he was twenty years old, he was ac- 
cepted as private secretary by the former 
United States Senator Alexander McDon- 
ald, of Arkansas, who was then extensively 
engaged in the promotion and development 
of mining enterprises in New York City. 
Three years later, Mr. Sackett took up the 
work of a professional law reporter and 



BIOGRAPHICAL CYCLOPEDIA 



163 



from the very beginning he displayed great 
aptitude for the work, winning success and 
reputation. 

In 1884, when he was twenty- four 
years old, having removed to New Jersey, 
Governor Abbett, of that State, selected 
him from a number of others as the official 
stenographer of the Governor, a very im- 
portant position in those days and one 
that called for the fullest exactness. Mr. 
Sackett performed the duties of the place 
with such ability and satisfaction that in 
the spring of 1884 he was appointed as the 
stenographer to report the testimony taken 
in pursuance of tlie writ of certiorari issu- 
ing out of the Supreme Court of New Jer- 
sey, to review the assessments imposed on 
the railroads of the State, under the famous 
Railroad Tax Act of 1884, which taxed the 
railroads hundreds of thousands of dollars 
more per annum than they had ever paid 
before. As the State ultimately won in the 
courts, Governor Abbett was able to re- 
deem his pledge that the people of New 
Jersey should and would be relieved of the 
burden of an individual State tax if he was 
elected Governor. These cases involved 
the taking of thousands of pages of testi- 
mony, covering a period of several months. 
but Mr. Sackett proved himself equal to 
every demand upon him. 

In 1885 Governor Abbett, having become 
satisfied that for many years the Morris & 
Essex (Lackawanna) Railroad Company 
had not been making proper returns to the 
State and was indebted thereto to an im- 
mense amount, directed Attorney General 
Stockton to institute proceedings for the 
collections of the money concerned. Ac- 
cordingly two arbitrators were appointed — 
Frederick Stevens, now a Vice-Chancellor, 
in behalf of the State, and Judge John F. 
Dillon, of New York, in behalf of the rail- 
road company. The result of the arbitra- 
tion was that $300,000 was paid into the 
State treasury. Mr. Sackett was engaged 
by the Attorney General to take the testi- 
mony, of which there were thousands of 
pages, for the State. The work included 



many solid pages of figures on the cost of 
every item entering into the cost of con- 
struction, to report which demanded the 
greatest skill, care and accuracy. The late 
Governor Bedle was counsel for the rail- 
road company and he told young Sackett, 
before the taking of the testimony for the 
railroad company began, that he had em- 
ployed another stenographer to report the 
case in the interest of his clients. After- 
wards, however, when he realized the situ- 
ation and observed Mr. Sackett's evident 
capacity for coping with it, he sent for the 
young reporter and told him that the work 
was so intricate in figures and his report so 
accurate that the railroad would be perfect- 
ly willing to accept his notes and had con- 
cluded that they needed no one else to take 
the testimony. Mr. Sackett served as the 
ofiicial stenographer of the Essex Circuit 
Court in Newark for a period of ten years 
and in 1902 became associated with the late 
Judge Kirkpatrick, United States District 
Judge, being since that time recognized and 
employed by litigants in the United States 
Courts in New Jersey as the official stenog- 
raphic reporter of those courts. 

Having decided to take up the practice of 
law in connection with his other duties, Mr. 
Sackett undertook its study without outside 
aid, just as he had done with shorthand, 
and he was admitted to the New Jersey bar 
in 1902, without having attended a law 
school. His knowledge came to him as the 
natural fruit of his own intelligent reading, 
coupled with his experience as a court sten- 
ographer, it taking him but a single year to 
sufficiently equip himself and obtain his 
sheepskin. His success as a practitioner 
was immediate and he is gradually building 
up a large practice. He has been identified 
with some important litigation, notably the 
case of William J. Righter vs. the Jersey 
City Water Supply Company, (a subsidiary 
concern of the East Jersey Water Com- 
pany), which he fought, in behalf of his 
client, for more than three years. He not 
only obtained an injunction restraining the 
defendants from further permitting their 



164 



BIOGRAPHICAL CYCLOPEDIA 



water to escape from their leaking reservoir 
over Righter"s property but he was about to 
apply for a supplemental injunction, which 
would have bound them hand and foot, 
when they were wise enough to recognize 
defeat and eflfect a settlement. 

Mr. Sackett was a member of the Twen- 
ty-second Regiment. National Guard of 
New York, for five years. He held mem- 
bership in the Montclair Club, at Montclair, 
New Jersey, for eight years and is at this 
time, in 1909, a member of the North End 
Club, of Newark. In religious faith, he is 
a member of the Second Presbyterian 
Church of Newark. He married, Novem- 
ber 17, 1885, in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, 



Burd Blair Livingston, daughter of John B. 
and Elizabeth (Morris) Livingston, direct 
descendants from the Livingstons and Mor- 
rises of Revolutionary fame. Of this mar- 
riage there is one child, a son, Blair Living- 
ston Sackett, who was born September 16, 
1886, was graduated with the degree of En- 
gineer of Mining, in May, 1909, from the 
Colorado School of Mines, and is now oc- 
cupying an important position in a large 
smelting and refining works at Grand Forks, 
British Columbia. Mrs. Sackett died in 
1899 and Mr. Sackett was again married in 
the Fall of 1909 to Laura C. Milner, of 
Bloomfield, New Jersey, a talented lady of 
high English extraction. 



JASPER RAYMOND RAND 

MONTCLAIR 



JASPER RAYMOND RAND, who fig- 
ured as an influential factor in the pro- 
duction of mining machinery, in which field 
of industry his father had played a dis- 
tinguished part before him, was born in 
Montclair, September 3, 1874, and died in 
Salt Lake City, March 30, 1909. He was 
the son of Jasper Raymond and Annie 
\'alentine Rand, and was descended 
through both father and mother from old 
and distinguished lineage, being, through 
the paternal side, the fifth scion of a long 
line of sturdy Americans to bear the name 
of Jasper Raymond. Through his father 
he traced his descent from a notable Eng- 
lish family of the sixteenth century, and his 
American ancestors were always character- 
ized by a marked degree of valor and pub- 
lic spirit, being men, who had a conspicu- 
ous part in the upbuilding of their country 
and who contributed their full share toward 
that end. 

Mr. Rand received his rudimentary edu- 
cation in the public schools of his native 
place and in the Montclair Military Acad- 
emy, subsequently becoming a student in 



Cornell University for the purpose of 
studying mechanical engineering. He left 
that institution in 1898 in order to enlist in 
the volunteer forces in the Spanish-Ameri- 
can War. As a member of the First Regi- 
ment, Volunteer Engineers, which was sent 
to Porto Rico, he saw active service and 
was with that command from June until 
the following January, in the meantime be- 
ing made a second lieutenant of his com- 
pany. His military record was in every 
way creditable and reflected the fullest 
honor upon his gallantry and patriotism. 
While still a student at Cornell, Mr. Rand 
took an active interest in dramatics and 
was a member of the Mask, and the Quill 
and Dagger Clubs, as well as the Alpha 
Delta Phi fraternity. 

On his return from service in the Span- 
ish-American War, he entered into busi- 
ness with his father. Upon the death of 
the elder Rand who was president of the 
well-known and successful Rand Drill 
Company, the son succeeded him as the ex- 
ecutive head, holding that position until 



BIOGRAPHICAL CYCLOPEDIA 



i6s 



the Rand Drill Company was consolidated 
with the Ingersoll-Sergeant Company, un- 
der the style of the Ingersoll-Rand Com- 
pany, of which concern Mr. Rand became 
a vice-president, continuing to hold that of- 
fice up to the time of his death. As a man 
of affairs he possessed noteworthy quali- 
ties, being endowed with sound judgment, 
keen and unerring foresight, and executive 
ability of no mean order. His integrity was 
of the highest and he had the esteem and 
thorough confidence of all with whom he 
held relations. He was a prominent mem- 
ber of the Army and Navy Club, the Camp- 
fire Club, the Salmagundi Club, the En- 
gineers' Club, the American Institute of 
Mining Engineers, the Naval and Alilitary 
Order of the Spanish-American War, and 



other organizations, including the Corning 
Club, of Corning, New York, the Alont- 
clair Club, the Montclair Athletic Club, and 
the Montclair Camera Club, of Montclair, 
and the Commercial Club, of Salt Lake 
City, Utah. He was interested in numer- 
ous mining properties in Utah and always 
evinced a warm concern in the development 
of that section. He was an ardent Repub- 
lican and was at all times ready to take an 
active part in the campaign work of his 
party. He was a man of marked intel- 
lectual strength and congenial nature, was 
public spirited and he could always be de- 
pended upon to contribute and heartily co- 
operate in any movement tending to ad- 
vance the general interests or promote the 
material welfare of the community at large. 



PATRICK H. RYAN 

NEWARK 



PATRICK H. RYAN, a conspicuous 
and influential figure in the political 
life of Essex County, New Jersey, and 
president of the Common Council of the 
City of Newark, was born in Ireland, 
March 17, 1855. He was the son of Michael 
Ryan and Mary Hayes, his parents coming 
to this country in 1867, bringing their 
twelve-years old son with them. The fam- 
ily settled in Danbury, Connecticut, in 
which place young Ryan received his edu- 
cation in the public schools. On the com- 
pletion of his studies, he was apprenticed 
to the hatter's trade and followed that pur- 
suit for a short time. In 1872 he removed 
to Newark, locating in the fifth ward of that 
city, where he has resided ever since. 

From 1876 to 1880 he filled a clerkship 
in the grocery establishment of Sheridan & 
Pagan, succeeding to the business of the 
firm in the last named year. Equipped with 
sound business principles and possessed of 
both enterprise and energ}', Mr. Ryan made 
a success of the venture and added ma- 



terially to the standing and patronage of 
the concern. He was rigidly honest and 
fair in his methols, and he has always com- 
manded the respect and confidence of all 
with whom he has held relations. In Sep- 
tember, 1899, he entered into partnership 
with F. J. Hull unler the name of F. J. 
Hull & Co., dealers in hay and grain, their 
present place of business being at Nos. 50 
and 52 Sussex avenue, Newark. Much of 
the success and prestige acquired by this 
undertaking was directly due to the efforts 
of IMr. Ryan, who is regarded to-day as 
one of the leading and most representative 
men in the hay and grain trade of New 
Jersey. 

A Democrat in his political views and 
connections, Mr. Ryan has taken an active 
part in the work of his party and is one of 
its most influential leaders in his own ward. 
He was elected to the Common Council 
in 1902, also in 1905 and 1907, and as the 
presiding officer of that body, a dignity to 
which he was called in 1908, he has won 



i66 



BIOGRAPHICAL CYCLOPEDIA 



respect by tlie impartial manner in which 
he has conducted its dehberations. His 
record is one to be proud of, and he has 
done much to serve the best interests of 
the city at large. He is a man of public 
sjMrit, and he can always be relied upon to 
advocate and push forward any undertak- 
ing that he regards as beneficial to the 
commonweal. He is a Roman Catholic 
in his religious faith and his charities, 
quietly bestowed without ostentation, are 
without number. He is interested in benevo- 
lent work and is a trustee of the St. James 



Hospital, to which institution he has been 
a liberal contributor. He is a member of 
the Knights of Columbus, Newark Council 
No. 150, of the Friendly Sons of St. Pat- 
rick, in which orders he is both popular 
and prominent. He is also a member of 
the Board of Trade. He married in New- 
ark, at St. James Church, June 8, 1886, 
Catlierine A. Hyland, daughter of Thomas 
and Bridget Hyland. To this union have 
been born five children, as follows : Thomas 
J., C. Columbia, Mary P., Henry Leo and 
Julia M. 



EDWARD FAITOUTE CONDIT YOUNG 

JERSEY CITY 



IT is not necessary that the man who 
achieves success be made of sterner stuff 
than his fellow man, but there are certain 
indispensable characteristics that contribute 
to the prosperity of the individual ; these 
are energy, enterprise, determination, and 
the ability to recognize and improve oppor- 
tunities. These qualities were cardinal ele- 
ments in the character of Mr. Young, and 
accompanied him in his progress from a 
humble station in life to one of prominence 
and affluence. 

Mr. Young was born in Malapardis, 
Morris County, New Jersey, January 25, 
1835. He was the son of Benjamin Frank- 
lin and Eliza D. Young, and lineally de- 
scended from the Reverend John Young, 
the English minister who arrived in New 
Haven, Connecticut, in 1638, and two years 
later led the colony which founded South- 
old, Long Island. Another paternal ances- 
tor was Ephraim Young, Chaplain of the 
State Militia, during the Revolutionary 
War. On his maternal side, he was of 
Scotch descent. At the age of nine years, 
two years after the death of his father, Mr. 
Young removed to Jersey City. He was 
educated in the public schools, and the late 
George H. Lindsley, principal of Public 



School No. I, was one of his teachers. On 
November i, 1852, he received a position as 
clerk in the Hudson County National Bank. 
Twelve years later he went to the First Na- 
tionel Bank, and in 1871 was appointed 
cashier. He succeeded to the presidency 
of the bank in 1879. 

Because of his thorough knowledge of 
banking and finance, his co-operation was 
sought by many large enterprises both in 
New Jersey and New York, and he was as- 
sociated with J. P. Morgan, Thomas F. 
Ryan and other financial leaders in many 
big transactions. At his death he was an 
officer and director in upwards of thirty in- 
stitutions. With the late Charles B. Thurs- 
ton, Mr. Young formed the Bergen and Jer- 
sey City Street Railway Company, and in 
1893, with the late B. M. Shanley, organ- 
ized the Consolidated Traction Company, 
which acquired many lines in Jersey City, 
Newark and Elizabeth. He was the first 
president of the Company. In 1896 the 
traction company was absorbed by the Pub- 
lic Service Corporation, and Mr. Young 
retired, though he held considerable stock in 
the new corporation. 

Mr. Young was one of the best known fi- 
nanciers and public men in New Jersey. He 



BIOGRAPHICAL CYCLOPEDIA 



167 



grew up with Jersey City, and was regarded 
as its first citizen. The fact of his career 
that was most characteristic and the one 
that he always spoke of with pride was that 
he had identified his career entirely with 
Jersey City. He lived there from his boy- 
hood to the hour of his death. He was 
identified directly or indirectly with most of 
the leading business enterprises of the city 
and did great service in building up its 
prosperity. When he engaged in outside 
ventures he made Jersey City their head- 
quarters. His office in the First National 
Bank was a centre from which great and in- 
tricate interests, political and financial, cen- 
tered for a quarter of a century. 

Mr. Young enjoyed the confidence of the 
courts and was frequently appointed re- 
ceiver of embarrassed companies. At one 
time he acted in that capacity for fifteen 
different concerns. He was an officer in 
the following companies: Acker Process 
Company, vice-president and director; 
American Graphite Company, president 
and director; First National Bank of Jer- 
sey City, president and director; Joseph 
Dixon Crucible Company, president and di- 
rector; Pavonia Trust Company of Jersey 
City, president and director; North Jersey 
Land Company, president and director. A 
partial list of the directorates to which he 
belonged is as follows: Bankers Trust 
Company of New York, Bayonne Trust 
Co., Bergen & Lafayette Trust Company, 
Jersey City; Bowling Green Trust Com- 
pany, New York; Brooklyn .Annex, Colon- 
ial Life Insurance Company, Hoboken and 
Manhattan Railroad Company, Hudson 
County Gas Company, Liberty National 
Bank, New York ; New Jersey Title Guar- 
antee & Trust Company, Jersey City ; New 
York & New Jersey Railroad Company, 
North Jersey Street Railway Company, 
Public Service Corporation of New Jersey, 
People's Safe Deposit and Trust Company 
and the West Hudson Trust Company, 
Harrison. 

His connection with the Dixon Company 
extended over a period of nearly thirty 



years, and in all that time, whether in the 
morning or the afternoon, he was ever the 
same. He was a very far sighted man, and 
the foundation of the Dixon business and 
its present equipment for the future are 
evidence of that farsightedness. He was 
ever full of push and energy and inspired 
it in others. It was impossible to limit him 
to a small area of business. He could see 
possibilities when others could not, and 
so resourceful was he that nothing daunted 
him. He amassed a fortune in the banking 
business. Although an exacting business 
man, he was of a charitable disposition, and 
there are hundreds of men in Jersey City 
who owe their success in business to the 
financial aid given them by him. He was 
identified with many charitable organiza- 
tions, and was one of the founders of the 
Children's Home. His contributions to St. 
John's Church were large. Other churches 
were the recipients of his generosity. He 
contributed $25,000 to Emory Church, and 
to the Reverend Father Meehan he gave 
$1,000 for a bell for the new All Saints' 
Church, in Lafayette. During the coal 
strike of several years ago, Mr. Young kept 
the fires burning in the stoves of many 
homes in Jersey City. Although prominent 
in Democratic politics, Mr. Young held but 
two elective offices — Alderman and Free- 
holder. This was early in his career. He 
held many appointive offices of honor and 
trust, one of which was State Railroad 
Commissioner. He was a member of the 
Democratic State Committee for several 
years, and in 1880 was one of the Presiden- 
tial electors for General Winfield S. Han- 
cock. In 1892, Mr. Young was a candidate 
for the Democratic nomination for Gov- 
ernor, but was defeated in the Convention. 
Mr. Young was probably a member of a 
greater number of social clubs, and other 
organizations than any other citizen of Jer- 
sey City, including the New Jersey His- 
torical Society. He was extremely popular, 
and had a legion of friends in every walk 
of Ufe. He was a member of the New Jer- 



i68 



BIOGRAPHICAL CYCLOPEDIA 



sey Society of the Order of Founders and 
Patriots of America, and was entitled to 
membership in the Sons of the Revolution. 
Although of Puritan stock, Mr. Young 
joined the Methodist Church in 1863, but 
later became a member of the congregation 
of St. John's Episcopal Church, and was 
for twenty-five years one of the vestry- 
men. His home life was ideal and the ex- 
actions of business did not lessen his en- 
joyment of the society of his friends. 



Mr. Young married Harriet M. Strober, 
July 26, 1854. Their children are Edward 
L., and Hattie Louise, wife of George T. 
Smith. Mr. Young held a prominent posi- 
tion in the social, church and philanthropic 
circles of the city, and his many good deeds, 
and his standing as a citizen in that com- 
munity will be a lasting monument to his 
memory in generations to come. His death 
occurred at his home. Boulevard and Glen- 
wood Avenue, December 6, 1908. 



JOHN PARKER 

NEWARK 



JOHN PARKER, for many years widely 
and favorably known as a builder and 
contractor, was born in Kingston, New Jer- 
sey, October 29, 1843. His father, Lewis 
Parker, was born in Boston, Massachusetts, 
March 24, 1807, received a public school 
education and learned and followed the car- 
penter's trade. He married Catherine Rule 
in Kingston, July 3, 1833, and died April 
12, 1874. His wife was born in Kingston 
September 23, 1809, and died on June 24, 
1898. 

John Parker's early education was ac- 
quired in a small country school in Mon- 
mouth Junction, New Jersey. When twelve 
years old he was bound out as a farmer's 
boy, and when eighteen he was apprenticed 
in the carpenter's trade. On the expiration 
of his apprenticeship he went to work in 
New York City, and, among other opera- 
tions, was engaged in the erection of offi- 
cers' quarters, soldiers' barracks, and other 
buildings on Governor's Island. In 1864 
he enlisted in one of the New Jersey volun- 
teer regiments, but did not go to the front. 

In 1872 he settled in Newark, where he 
followed his trade for ten years, and then 
went into the business of building and con- 
tracting for himself. In this he was so suc- 
cessful that in 1895 he felt able to retire, 
and thenceforth spent much of his time in 



travel, visiting every state in the union, the 
principal countries in Europe, the West In- 
dies, and Canada. He was a member and 
Past Grand of Knickerbocker Lodge, No. 
52, Independent Order of Odd Fellows, of 
Matawan, and of St. Luke's Methodist 
Episcopal Church, of Newark. He died at 
his home in Newark, January 31, 1909. 

Mr. Parker married in Alatawan, Decem- 
ber 4, 1867, Hannah Morton, daughter of 
James Morton. Four children were born 
of this union ; Charles James, born July 10, 
1869, died November 6, 1875 ; William C, 
born May 20, 1871 ; John H., born Decem- 
ber 28, 1873 ; and Nina A., born November 
28, 1879, died December 21, 1881. 

Hannah Parker was of English ancestry. 
Her paternal grandfather, Thomas Morton, 
was a native of St. Helen's, Lancashire, 
was brought up in the Church of England, 
received a common school education, 
learned the watchmaker's trade, and mar- 
ried Hannah Luisocks. Five sons, all now 
deceased, and two daughters, were born of 
this union ; Thomas, William, James, 
George, Richard, Mary and Frances. 
The son James Morton was born in St. 
Helen's February 14, 1820, received a 
college education, became a bookkeeper, and 
came to the United States in September, 
1852. He located first in New Brunswick 



BIOGRAPHICAL CYCLOPEDIA 



169 



and later in Somerville, in both which places 
he was engaged in the glass business ; and, 
after spending some time in teaching school 
in Marlboro and Matawan, he resumed his 
connection with the glass business in New 
York City. He married Jane Pollard, who 
was born in St. Helens in 1821, and died in 
Matawan in 1902. Eight children were born 
of this marriage ; Hannah, Mary Jane, 
Tiiomas, William, Fanny, Eliza, James, and 
Alfred. James Morton died in Matawan 
on March 27, 1869. Hannah (Morton) 
Parker died October 2, 1899. 

Of John Parker's surviving children, the 
oldest, William C. Parker, was born in Mat- 
awan, received a public school and business 
college education, learned the carpenter's 
trade with his father and was associated 
with him till 1892, when he engaged in con- 
tracting work on his own account. On 
March i, 1894, he married Lillian Adella 
Peters, born in Newark October 20, 1871, 
a daughter of George Peters, (born in Irv- 
ington, New Jersey, November 11, 1846, 
died July 14, 1898) and Mary Elizabeth 
Brown, (born in Newark, November 25, 



1849). Their children are: William Leroy, 
born September 16, 1895; John Harold, 
born March 5, 1899; George Walton, born 
March 21, 1903; and Elizabeth Marie, born 
October 16, 1906. William C. Parker is a 
member of Eureka Lodge, No. 39, Free 
and Accei)tcd Masons of Newark. 

The other son, John H. Parker, was born 
in Newark, received a public school educa- 
tion, graduated from the New York Col- 
lege of Pharmacy in 1895, and started in 
business in Newark as a pharmacist and 
chemist in 1897. On February i, 1899, he 
married Margaretta Boyd Mitchell, born in 
Elizabeth, New Jersey, March 21, 1879, ^ 
daughter of James Mitchell (born in New 
York City, March 21, 1847, ^'C^ June 13, 
1 890 J and Sarah Adeline Christopher, 
(born in Elizabeth, New Jersey, October i, 
1853, fJie*^! December 18, 1891). The chil- 
dren of this marriage are; Irving Morton, 
born February 26, 1900, and Nina Adeline, 
born July 25, 1903, John H. Parker is a 
member of Anthony Wayne Council, Junior 
Order of American Mechanics, of Newark. 



HENRY POMEREHNE 

NEWARK 



HENRY P0:MEREHNE, whose earlier 
success in the real estate busi- 
ness has since been duplicated by the 
prominence and repute achieved by 
him in the practice of law at the 
New Jersey Bar, was born in New- 
ark, New Jersey, November 8, 1880. He 
is the son of Henry and Henrietta (Fetter) 
Pomcrehne, and is of old and respected 
German ancestry, being third in the line of 
descent in this country, the American 
branch having been founded here by his 
grandfather. 

When Mr. Ponierehne was only three 
years of age, iiis parents removed to Rah- 
way. New Jersey. There he received his 



early education, in the Third Ward Public 
School, until 1892, in which year the family 
returned to Newark. In Newark, at twelve 
years of age, he began his career by en- 
tering the employ of L. Bamberger & Co., 
where he remained two years. Then he en- 
gaged with A. L. Cross, who was in the real 
estate business and with whom he remained 
one year, obtaining his first insight into a 
line of endeavor in which he was himself 
destined to attain substantial results and 
high prestige as an expert. At the moment, 
however, he re-entered the establishment of 
his former employers and was for the next 
three years engaged in that firm's business 
department. In 1896 he took a course in 



I/O 



BIOGRAPHICAL CYCLOPEDIA 



the New Jersey Business College, and then 
was again with L. Bamberger & Co., and a 
representative of the Gilbert IManufactur- 
ing Company, New York City. 

In the meantime Mr. Pomerehne reached 
the conclusion that the legal profession 
promised a career best suited to his tastes 
and talents, and, after a course in the New- 
York Preparatory School, he entered the 
law department of the New York Univers- 
ity in 1900, in which year he also started 
to read law in the office of Judge Thomas 
S. Henry, of Newark, with whom he re- 
mained one year, in 1901 becoming a stu- 
dent under Senator Harry V. Osborne. In 
1901 he formed a partnership with Frank 
A. Boettner, under the name of Boettner 
& Pomerehne, in the real estate collection 
business. The venture proved successful 
from the very beginning and the partner- 
ship continued until 1904. During the three 
years of its existence, this firm was engaged 
in several large real estate operations in 
South Plainfield, South Rutherford and 
Kingsland, and these were in each instance 
carried out to a preeminently successful 
conclusion. 

In 1904, Mr. Pomerehne withdrew from 
the firm he had helped to found, owing to 
a desire to devote his attention to the law. 



He was admitted to the Bar of New Jer- 
sey as an attorney at the February term. 
1905, and was made a counselor in Febru- 
ary, 1908. As a lawyer he is attaining the 
same success that crowned his previous ef- 
forts in the realty field. His ability is rec- 
ognized and his knowledge of real estate 
has caused his services to be sought in that 
branch of his profession. He makes a speci- 
alty of criminal law, and Federal court 
practice and gives a great deal of attention 
to corporation law, of which he is making 
a close study. He is general counsel for a 
number of the leading merchants, firms and 
corporations in Essex County, and his pro- 
fessional work has been characterized by 
care, fidelity to his clients' best interests, 
and a skill that has proved fruitful in the 
results attained. Mr. Pomerehne is a Re- 
publican, but has never been active as a pol- 
itician, having no ambitions in that direc- 
tion. He has contributed materially to the 
development of Eastern New Jersey in his 
realty operations, and his public .spirit as 
a citizen has been demonstrated on more 
than one occasion when his services have 
been enlisted in some common cause, hav- 
ing in view the betterment of conditions or 

the building up of the community at 
large. 



CHARLES WIGHT MacQUOID 

ROSELLE 



THE stock from which the MacQuoid 
family in the United States is descend- 
ed is very ancient. Traditions antedating 
tangible records identify it intimately with 
the historic movements to establish the 
right to a free exercise of religious belief 
that convulsed England, Scotland and Ire- 
land almost continuously from about the 
year 1400 down to comparatively recent 
times. The long struggles of the English 
civil and the Roman church authorities for 
supremacy in ecclesiastical affairs and the 



efforts of the people, especially in Scotland, 
to secure an independent self-governing 
system, led to many persons being burnt at 
the stake, to innumerable popular revolts, 
and to bitter official persecutions of those 
who labored for religious freedom. 

As far back as both tradition and record 
go, the MacQuoid family was conspicuous 
for its sturdy, uncompromising religious 
fervor, a characteristic that has pervaded 
it to this day. Throughout the long rec- 
ords, still extant, are found the names of 





Ut-ri^' 



Aj 



BIOGRAPHICAL CYCLOPEDIA 



171 



many members who became ministers of 
the Gospel. Tradition has handed down 
the statement that various branches of the 
family were forced by persecution to seek 
personal safety in flight from tlicir homes, 
and it is a matter of record tliat in 1752 
tlie great-great-grandfather and grand- 
mother of the subject of this skctcii fled 
from their home in Scotland to the North 
of Ireland, that they might worship God 
according to the dictates of their own con- 
sciences witliout fear of bodily injury. 

The family stock is not only verj' an- 
cient, but its members have been very num- 
erous. There are extant many groups of 
names, but, doubtless owing to the long 
period of religious unrest and the frequent 
migrations of the whole family, early mem- 
bers failed to preserve in writing the con- 
necting links of dates, places, events, and 
relationships that are requisite to establish 
an unbroken line of descent, and as a result 
it is now impossible, in many important 
periods to determine who was who. 

Among the earliest records of the family 
in existence, one informs us that the Rev- 
erend Thomas MacQuoid was born in 
1574, and married for his third wife Doro- 
thy, a daughter of George Farwell, and an- 
other notes the marriage of Christopher 
MacQuoid to Mary, a widow (no family 
name given), in 1605. Christopher, a son 
of the latter couple was born in 1609, mar- 
ried Jane (family name not given) who 
died in 1676, four years after her husband's 
death. Three children were born of this 
union: Christopher, born in 1644. died in 
1729, married Mary Southcott, who died 
in 1 701 ; Elizabeth, who married Richard 
Belfield ; and Sarah, who married William 
Searle. The third Christopher had a son, 
also Christopher, who married Catherine, 
daughter of Arthur Aysford, and a daugh- 
ter Mary who married Francis Drake. The 
fourth Christopher had two sons, the first 
also Christopher, born in 1706, who became 
a physician and died unmarried, and .Ar- 
thur, who married Grace, daugliter of 



Nicholas Piers, and one daughter Cath- 
erine. 

Arthur and Grace MacQuoid had four 
children: Arthur, bom in 1746, died in 
i(xx), who married Jane, daughter of James 
Taylor, by his wife Ann, a daughter of 
Thomas Acland ; Christopher, George and 
Jane. The second Arthur revived the name 
Christoplier for his eldest son, born in 1774, 
and died in 1837, who became a Colonel in 
the army. His other children were Eliza- 
beth; Arthur, born in 1776, died in 1809, 
who became a clerg)-man; George, born in 
1783, who married Maria, daughter of 
John Bend ; and Jane. The last Christopher 
had six sons: William, who married Mary, 
daughter of Wade Crowne, of Yorkshire, 
and became a clergyman ; George ; Arthur ; 
Charles James ; John Bend and Frank ; and 
two daughters ; Anna Maria, who married 
H. R. Roe, and Ellen, who married J. 
Whitehead. This William had three sons: 
Christopher Wade, Robert, and James. Af- 
ter Colonel Christopher MacQuoid's fam- 
ily, all dates are lacking in this branch of 
the family. 

It is here deserving of note that Ann Ac- 
land, above mentioned belonged to a family 
that has been greatly distinguished in the 
military, educational, medical and political 
life of Great Britain, for upwards of two 
hundred years. One member especially in- 
teresting in American history, was Lady 
Christiana Henrietta Caroline, commonly 
called Lady Harriet. She was born in 1750 
and died in 1815; a daughter of the first 
Earl of Ilchester ; and wife of Major John 
Dyke Acland (died in 1778), eldest son of 
Sir Thomas Acland. She accompanied her 
husband during the Burgoyne expedition, 
nursed him when he was .severely ill in 
Canada and after he was wounded in Hub- 
bardtown in 1777, and taken prisoner at the 
second battle of Saratoga, she sought him 
within the American lines, and was per- 
mitted to remain with him until his recov- 
ery ; several publications treating of her ad- 
ventures during the Revolutionary War, 
appeared in both England and America. 



172 



BIOGRAPHICAL CYCLOPEDIA 



Later well-known members of the Acland 
family were Sir Arthur Herbert Dyke Ac- 
land, Bart, Vice-President of the Council 
of Education; Sir Henry Wentworth Dyke 
Acland, Bart., eminent sanitarian, Regius 
Professor of Medicine and Radcliffe Li- 
brarian at Oxford University; and Sir 
Thomas Dyke Acland, Bart., a conspicuous 
supporter of Mr. Gladstone in Parliament. 
In the records already examined are 
found the names of four ministers of the 
Gospel; Thomas, born in 1574; Arthur 
(1776-1809); William; and H. ; and to 
these is to be added a fifth, also William. 
The latter William removed from Devon- 
shire, England, in 1640, settled in the Pro- 
vince (now State) of Maine, and is belived 
to have been the first representative of the 
family permanently domiciled in America. 
He married Abigail Barnes in 1651, and of 
this union there is a record of four sons ; 
John, Paul, Timothy, and Christopher. The 
latter name was evidently a high favorite 
with the MacQuoids, as it appears in al- 
most every generation from 1605 down. 
John, the eldest son of the Reverend Wil- 
liam, moved to Massachusetts in 1676, and 
four years later married Mary Hitte ; 
Christopher engaged in trade and settled in 
the South; and of Paul and Timothy we 
have no record. Three sons and two daugh- 
ters were born to John and Mary Mac- 
Quoid : Giles, Benjamin, Aquila, Mary 
and Hester. The latter Mary was married 
in Boston in 1703 to Pierre Chaille, a mem- 
ber of a family that was prominent in Rev- 
olutionary days, and subsequently removed 
to Maryland. We have thus traced the 
most prominent of the early members of 
this extensive family as closely as imper- 
fect records will permit, have established 
beyond question the antiquity of the Mac- 
Quoids, and now come to consider a well- 
known and popular representative of the 
present generation. 

Charles Wight MacQuoid, the subject of 
this sketch, was born in New York City on 
May 13, 1862. His father was William At- 
kins MacQuoid, who was born in New 



York City in 1838, married Elizabeth 
Deane Hook (also born in New York City 
in 1846) on September 28, 1859 and died 
in 1880. Four daughters and one son 
were the issue of this marriage: Carrie, 
Charles Wight, Augusta, Minnie and 
Bertha. Excepting Bertha, the mother and 
all children are Hving (1909). The grand- 
parents of Charles Wight were Robert, 
who was born on May 12, 1808, and died 
on April 29, 1873, ^nd Phoebe, born on 
April 21, 1809, died on July 23, 1890. They 
were married in Beemersville, Sussex 
County , New Jersey on July 19, 1823. 
Their children were William Atkins and 
Frances. 

Mr. MacQuoid when seven years old 
went to Westfield, New Jersey, where he 
acquired a public school education and re- 
sided till 1893, when, on his marriage, he 
made his permanent home in the borough 
of Roselle. He entered on his business ca- 
reer in 1878, as office boy in an insurance 
house in Wall street. New York- City. A 
year later he went into the well-known 
banking and brokerage house of William 
Heath & Co., where he remained for two 
years, then becoming cashier in the similar 
house of A. H. Combs & Co. He remained 
there for fourteen years ; then went with 
the firm of John M. Shaw & Co., of which 
he subsequently became the junior member. 
In 1899 he bought a seat on the New York 
Stock E.xchange, and in 1900 formed the 
brokerage firm of C. W. MacQuoid & Co., 
of which he is still the head. 

For many years his immediate family 
were identified with the Whig Party. Af- 
ter attaining his majority his active sym- 
pathies were with the Republican Party till 
Grover Cleveland's first election to the 
Presidency, when he became and has since 
continued, an Independent ; and as such he 
was elected Mayor of the borough of 
Roselle in 1908. He was married in 1893 
to Mary Frances, daughter of Miller F. 
and Helen Serena Moore. One child, Helen, 
was born of this union. In private life, 
Mr. MacQuoid is a devoted adherent of the 



BIOGRAPHICAL CYCLOPEDIA 



173 



Protestant Episcopal Church, and is es- 
pecially interested in the activities of St. 
Luke's Church of Roselle, of which he is 
the senior warden and lay reader, and to 
which he has given a building lot, a hand- 
some altar, and one of the finest organs of 
its size in the State. His social and recrea- 
tive connections are with the Church Club 
of New York ; the Academy of Political 
Science; the Baltusrol (Xew Jersey) Golf 
Club: the Westfield (Xew Jersey) Golf 
Club; the Lake Hopatcong Yacht Club; 
the Wachung Field Club ; the Roselle 
Casino ; the Democratic Club of Xew York, 



and the New York Stock Exchange 
Luncheon Club. He is also director of the 
First Xational Bank of Roselle and a gov- 
ernor of the Roselle Casino. Mr. Mac- 
Ouoid is a man of strong domestic tastes, 
readily approachable, exceedingly affable, 
and a most delightful entertainer. His 
large and elegant mansion at Roselle is an 
ideal home, replete with evidences of the 
high architectural, artistic and literary 
tastes of its occupants, and suggestive at 
every turn of the pleasure, comfort and 
hospitality that invariably await the favored 
guest. 



EDWARD WALLACE SCUDDER 

TRENTON 



EDWARD WALLACE SCUDDER, 
LL.D., an associate justice of the Su- 
preme Court of Xew Jersey from 1862 un- 
til his death in 1893, was descended from a 
family that has been prominent in the State 
for several generations. During the Revo- 
lution it furnished many men for the pa- 
triot army, both as privates and as officers. 
It has always been influential for good in 
the character of its individual members, es- 
pecially in Mercer County, where many of 
the name are still to be found. 

Judge Scudder was born in Scudder's 
Falls, near Trenton. Mercer County, in 
1822. and after receiving a good ])reparatory 
education in Lawrcncevillc entered Prince- 
ton College, from which he was graduated 
in 1841. He then entered the law office of 
the Honorable William L. Dayton, after- 
ward minister from the United States to 
France. He was admitted to the bar in 
1844, and made counselor in 1848. He 
opened an office in Trenton and almost im- 
mediately secured a large practice of the 
very best character. The .scrupulous care 
which he gave to the interests of his clients, 
his great industry and integrity, secured the 
entire confidence of a large clientage, and 



his name soon appeared as counsel in the 
reports of both common law and equity 
courts and c|uite frequently in many import- 
ant cases. He was not an aspirant for polit- 
ical honors, but in 1863 he was elected to 
the State Senate from Mercer County for a 
term of three years, and was President of 
that body during the last year of his service. 
In 1869 he was appointed an Associate 
Justice of the Supreme Court of Xew Jer- 
sey and was thrice reappointed, the last 
time in 1890. He died February 3, 1893. 
He assumed the duties of his office in 
March of the year of his appointment and 
rendered his first decision in the Supreme 
Court at the Xovember term and in the 
Court of Errors at the June term of the 
same year. His first opinion was delivered 
in an important case, in which a large 
amount of property was at stake, involving 
questions of law relative to specific per- 
formance of an agreement to convey. It 
was in the Appellate Court on an appeal 
from the Chancellor. Judge Scudder met 
the complications of the case and unrav- 
elled the antagonisms of the evidence with 
great ability, showing himself fully com- 
petent to meet the requirements of his high 



174 



BIOGRAPHICAL CYCLOPEDIA 



office. From that time until his death he 
was a prominent member of both tri- 
bunals. 

Judge Scudder added strength and dig- 
nity to the bench. He represented there the 
moral force which always attends the pres- 
ence of a good man, of a conscientious up- 
right citizen, and of a God-fearing, intelli- 
gent Christian. He was not a man of im- 
pulses, nor of moods; his temperament was 
equable ; he was peculiarly free from preju- 
dice and always impartial. The impelling 
force of his character as judge was his 
strong, keen sense of the right ; he never dis- 
regarded precedents nor set aside principles, 
nor did he overthrow well settled decisions. 
His great desire, his controlling impulse, 
was to learn the right. To do entire justice 
between man and man, to so interpret the 
law and apply it that wrong should be reme- 



died and equity prevail, was the mainspring 
of his action. He impressed himself upon 
the communities where he presided at the 
circuits as painstaking, conscientious, and 
industrious, diligent in the protection of the 
interests of the citizen, strict in the admin- 
istration of justice, swift in the punishment 
of criminals, but ever tempering the stern 
demands of an outraged law with mercy, 
and, above all, as a just and unbiased judge. 
His judgments were sound and bear the test 
of severe criticism; his opinions were 
marked by a clear, lucid style, forcibly ex- 
pressed and bore traces of research and la- 
bor. He reasoned well, expressed himself 
strongly and forcibly, and was always evi- 
dently swayed by a strict adherence to duty. 
His character as a jurist and as a citizen 
may be summed up in one single, homely 
phrase; "it was all rounded." 



JOSEPH HENSLER, JR. 

NEWARK 



JOSEPH HENSLER, Jr., prominently 
identified with the brewing interests of 
New Jersey as one of the most progressive 
and representative men allied with that 
branch of industry, was born in Newark, 
that State, June 29, 1859, 3""^ died at his 
home in that city, November 3, 1908. He 
was the son of Joseph and Magdalena Hen- 
sler, through whom he was descended from 
old and respected German ancestral stock. 
Both his parents were natives of Baden, 
Germany, his father coming to this country 
in 1853, ten years later than his mother, 
who was brought here by her parents in 
1843. The elder Hensler located in New- 
ark, where he established the brewing busi- 
ness now carried on in corporate form un- 
der the style of The Joseph Hensler Brew- 
ing Company. The business was successful 
from the outset but it remained for the son 
to develop the enterprise to its present large 
and important proportions. 



The younger Hensler was educated in the 
Twelfth Ward German-English School, in 
Newark, supplemented by a course in Cole- 
man's Business College. He began his ca- 
reer in his father's brewery and his entire 
subsequent life was spent in connection with 
the operations of that industry, a line of en- 
deavor for which he possessed every re- 
quired qualification, having inherited his 
father's ability along those lines, combined 
with a business capacity that enabled him to 
advance the interests of the concern to a 
material degree. He continued to work 
for his father until taken into the company 
with his brother, Adolph F. Hensler, in the 
winter of 1889. In the meantime he had 
acquired a thoroughly practical knowledge 
of the business, having governed its every 
detail. He had applied himself to this end 
with a zeal and intelligence that proved 
fruitful in results, and which rendered him 
in after years one of the best informed men 



BIOGRAPHICAL CYCLOPEDIA 



175 



on the subject of brewing in the country. 
After his admission to the company, he was 
elected Secretary and Treasurer of the con- 
cern, retaining that office until the death 
of his father, March 29, 1902, when he was 
made President, a responsibihty that he con- 
tinued to fill up to the time of liis own death. 

As head of the Joseph Hensler Brewing 
Company, Mr. Hensler exhibited great ex- 
ecutive ability and advanced the interests of 
the enterprise in many ways. A man of 
keen foresight and unerring judgment, with 
business qualities of a high order, he in- 
creased the company's trade and added to 
its prestige and standing. As compared 
with the small brewery conducted by Lorenz 
& Hensler previous to 1866 and under the 
simple name of Joseph Hensler from 1866 
to 1889, the gradual but steady growth ac- 
quired during that period was in marked 
contrast to the energj' and prosperity at- 
tained under the later management of the 
son. 

Mr. Hensler was also the Treasurer of 
the Hensler Realty Company, an undertak- 
ing that ranks among the leading ventures 
of its class. He never held public office, 
having no inclinations or ambitions in that 
direction, preferring to devote his time and 
energies to the advancement of his own bus- 
iness interests. At the same time, he was 
public spirited as a citizen and he was al- 
ways ready to co-operate in any movement 
that tended to promote the general welfare 
and he accomplished not a little along these 
lines, being an earnest and eflfective worker 
for the good of the community at large. He 
held membership in Newark Lodge Xo. 21, 



Rcnevolent and Protective Order of Elks, 
and in all the leading German singing so- 
cieties. He was a liberal contributor to all 
the hospitals and philanthropic institutions 
of his city, but he would never accept a 
trusteeship, although tendered such on 
many occasions, and his private charities, 
(juietly bestowed, were without number. He 
traveled over the United States in 1907, ac- 
quainting himself with the country, and he 
spent several months in the South the last 
winter of his life, visiting all the points of 
interest. He was a gentleman of wide in- 
formation and strong intellectual gifts, 
pleasing in personality and popular among 
all with whom he was brought in contact. 

He married March 16, 1882, Amelia L. 
Rohrig, of San Francisco, California, 
daughter of Carl and Elizabeth Rohrig. 
Mrs. Hensler was born in Brooklyn, Xew 
York, but both her parents were natives of 
Germany. To Mr. and Mrs. Mensler were 
born two sons one of whom died soon after 
birth. The surviving son, Arthur C. Hen- 
sler, new twenty-six years of age, has in- 
herited his father's business talents to a 
most pronounced extent. lie idL-ntilieil 
himself with the brewery as a very young 
man and was taken into the company as its 
Secretary and Treasurer. lie also suc- 
ceeded his father as Secretary of the Hen- 
sler Realty Company and has various out- 
side interests of an important character, be- 
ing a director of the Federal Trust Com- 
pany, of Newark, a trustee of the Dime 
Savings Institution, of the same city, and 
Treasurer of tlie Essex Cornice and Sky- 
light Works. He is unmarried. 



JOSEPH HANSBURY CALLAGHAN 

NEWARK 

JOSEPH HANSBURY CALLAG- is a native of Newark, where he was born 

HAN, a representative member of the July 17. 1882, and in which city his entire 

New Jersey Bar, whose success in general career has been spent. He is the son of 

practice has brought him enviable repute, Joseph C. and Agnes (Hansbury) Callag- 



176 



BIOGRAPHICAL CYCLOPEDIA 



han. He received his preliminary educa- 
tion in the Newark public schools, followed 
by a course in the High School of that 
city, from which he was graduated in 
1899. He then entered the New York 
Universi'ty Law School, being graduated 
therefrom in 1902 with the degree of Bach- 
elor of Laws. It is worthy of note in this 
connection that he stood high in his 
class, obtaining second honors. In the 
meantime he studied law in the office of 
Ernest F. Kerr, in Newark. 

Admitted to the Bar of New Jersey as 
an attorney at the June term, 1903, and 
as a counselor in 1906, he practiced for a 
time in the office of his preceptor, Mr. 
Kerr, later opening an office of his own 
and establishing himself in general prac- 



tice. He was successful from the outset, 
his skill as a practitioner, and the care 
with which he guarded his clients' inter- 
ests serving to attract support. His abil- 
ity and marked aptitude for his chosen 
profession made themselves manifest to 
such a marked degree that his prestige 
grew rapidly and he has been identified 
successfully with much important litiga- 
tion in the New Jersey courts. He is a 
Democrat in his political principles, a Ro- 
man Catholic in his religious faith and, 
personally, a gentleman of pleasing char- 
acteristics, with a host of friends. He is a 
member of the Phi Delta Phi Club of New 
York, and of a number of local organiza- 
tions, in all of which he is deservedly pop- 
ular. 



WILLIAM M. LANNING 

TRENTON 



WILLIAM M. LANNING was born 
on a farm in Ewing township, Mer- 
cer county, New Jersey, January i, 1849. 
His ancestors were among the earliest set- 
tlers in New Jersey, the family having re- 
sided within the territory now embraced in 
Mercer county since 1698. He was gradu- 
ated from the Lawrenceville High School 
in 1866. For six years subsequent to his 
graduation he taught in the district schools 
of Mercer county and from 1872 to 1878 
he was engaged as a teacher in the old 
Trenton Academy ; in 1878 and 1879 he 
was principal of the public school at East 
Trenton. During the last four years of his 
position as a teacher he was also engaged 
in the study of the law with the late George 
A. Anderson and General Edward L. 
Campbell as his preceptors. He was ad- 
mitted to the bar in November, 1880. 

At once opening an office in Trenton his 
ability was soon recognized. In 1883 he 
was admitted as a counselor at law, and 
the following year he was made City Solici- 



tor of Trenton. He served in that capac- 
ity until 1887, when he was made Judge of 
the City District Court, a position he oc- 
cupied until 1 89 1, when, with other Dis- 
trict Court judges, he was legislated out of 
office. With Judge Vroom, Judge Lanning 
in 1887 compiled the "Supplement to the 
Revision of the General Statutes of New 
Jersey." In 1894 they were authorized by 
legislative enactment to compile and pub- 
lish a revised edition of the General Sta- 
tutes. In 1885 he published a standard 
work entitled "Help for Township Offi- 
cers," which ran into a second edition. He 
was a member of the special commission 
which framed the present comprehensive 
township laws, a member of the Constitu- 
tional Commission of 1894, and has partici- 
pated in many notable events of a legal 
character in the state. He was a director 
and counsel for the Mechanics National 
Bank and for several years was also coun- 
sel for the Trenton Banking Company. He 
served for a time as President of the Me- 



BIOGRiVPHICAL CYCLOPEDIA 



177 



clianics Bank, being succeeded in that posi- 
tion bv Ex-Governor Edward C. Stokes. 

Judge Lanning is a member of the Board 
of Managers of the Trenton Savings Fund 
Society, of the Board of Trustees of the 
General Assembly of the Presbyterian 
Churcli in the United States of America, of 
the Board of Directors of the Princeton 
Theological Seminary and of the Board of 
Trustees of the Lawrenceville School. He 



was elected to Congress in 1902 by a ])lur- 
ality of 2,006 over Colonel Lewis Perrine, 
the Democratic candidate. After the first 
session of the Fifty-eighth Congress he re- 
signed, in order to qualify as United States 
District Judge for the District of New Jer- 
sey in the place of Judge Kirkpatrick, who 
died May 30, 1904. On May 21, 1909, he 
became one of the United States Circuit 
Judges for the Third Judicial Circuit. 



ERNST GEORGE ASMUS 

WEST HOBOKEN 



ERNST GEORGE ASMUS, for many 
years a prominent and honored citizen 
of West Hoboken, New Jersey, and one of 
the noteworthy and successful men of his 
times in the floricultural business of the 
United States, was born November 27, 
1844, in Hamburg, Germany, son of Chris- 
tian A. and Elizabeth (Bade) Asmus of 
that city. He received his early education 
in Germany, also attending schools in this 
country, the family having come to Amer- 
ica in 1852. Its first place of residence 
was Staten Island, but in 1854 removal 
was made to Union Hill, New Jersey, and 
in 1856 to West Hoboken. In the latter 
place Ernst, at the age of twelve, engaged 
with his sister, on a meagre capital, in the 
selling of cut flowers. His father, who had 
previously been in the carpentering busi- 
ness, became interested in the children's 
enterprise, and a year after their start a 
lean-to greenhouse was built, forty feet in 
length. 

From this small beginning grew by de- 
grees the extensive floral establishments 
with which the name of Ernst G. Asmus is 
identified. His first venture of any im- 
portance was at a place on Bergenwood 
Road, near Schuetzen Park. Later he re- 
moved to the Weaverton Road, and in 
1880 he purchased the property of Peter 
Schupp, an old-time florist. At that time 



his business investment was represented 
by two acres of ground and sixteen green- 
houses. At his death lie owned in West 
Hoboken some fifty greenhouses, with ap- 
proximately 150,000 square feet of glass; 
and in addition had a valuable establish- 
ment in Closter, New Jersey, consisting of 
two large rose houses, each four hundred 
by fifty-five feet. During his early career 
Mr. Asmus gained high reputation as a 
grower of plants for the market, and also 
in bulb forcing; but subsequently he de- 
voted himself exclusively to growing for 
tlie wholesale cut flower trade, his spe- 
cialties being the rose, carnation, lily of 
the valley and lilacs which he produced all 
the year. As a rose grower he was known 
throughout the country; and he introduced 
to the American trade several of the varie- 
ties now in greatest request, including the 
Madame Caroline Testout, the Souvenir 
de President Carnot, and the Liberty. He 
was very successful as a competitor at ex- 
hibitions, receiving many medals, certifi- 
cates and trophies. His career was dis- 
tinguished by great personal industry, re- 
markable energy and judgment in carrying 
out his plans, and the highest integrity. 
Personally he was a man of the most ami- 
able and attractive traits, and he enjoyed 
to the fullest extent the respect, confi- 
dence and affection of his associates. 



178 



BIOGRAPHICAL CYCLOPEDIA 



In 1874 he married Josephine M. Lung, 
of West Hoboken. In the conduct and 
management of his business he was ably 
assisted by his two eldest sons, Adolph E., 
born in 1875, and Edward R., born in 1878, 
who since his death have successfully con- 
tinued it. Another son, Grover E., was 
born in 1885. Mr. Asmus was a member 
of the Society of American Florists, the 
New York Florists' Club, and the Ameri- 
can Rose Society, and was one of the 
directors and first president of the New 
York Cut Flower Company. He died at 
his residence 401 1 Hudson Boulevard, 
West Hoboken, December 17, 1903, being 
survived by his widow and their three 
sons. 

The following tribute to his memory tes- 
tifies the high esteem in which he was held 
by his associates: 

"At a special meeting of the New York 
Cut Flower Company, held at its ofifice on 
Tuesday, December 29, 1903, the following 
preamble and resolutions were adopted. 

"Wliereas, Ernst G. Asmus, our friend, 
counsellor, and the first President of our 
organization, has been called from us by 
death, leaving a void which to us seems one 
that cannot be filled ; and 

"Whereas, We, who have been associated 



with him in this organization, feel that it is 
but proper that we place on record our esti- 
mation of his character and worth, and the 
sincere sorrow which each feels at parting 
with such a dear friend, able associate, and 
worthy co-laborer. 

"Therefore, be it Resolved, that the 
members of the Board of Directors 
of the New York Cut Flower Com- 
pany do hereby extend to the fam- 
ily their sincere sympathy at their be- 
reavement, assuring them that by his death 
not only are we made mutually mourners 
for one beloved and respected, but that in 
the death of Ernst G. Asmus not only have 
we been deprived of the advice and assist- 
ance of one of our most useful members, 
but that rose growers of the whole country 
have lost one whose ambition, energy, and 
ability made him clearly among the first in 
his profession in this country ; one ever alert 
to improve and advance the interests of the 
rose, and largely through whose efforts the 
success of that flower has been advanced to 
the high standard it now holds. 

"Resolved, That this preamble and reso- 
lution be placed in full on the minutes of 
this company, a copy of the same be pub- 
lished in the trade papers, and an engrossed 
copy be sent to the family. 

"Eugene Dailledouze, Henry Hentz, Jr., 
Benjamin Dorrance, Paul M. Pierson, 
Louis M. Noe, Scotto C. Nash, Frank L. 
Moore, George W. Hillman, Paul Daille- 
douze, John N. May." 



JOHN WALTER GRAY 

SUMMIT 



JOHN WALTER GRAY was one of six 
brothers, sons of Edward and Eliza- 
beth Gray, of whom Edward W. Gray, of 
Newark, New Jersey, was the eldest. Dr. 
Gray was born in Jersey City, December 24, 
1876. He was educated at the New York 
University, and on being graduated from 
the University Medical College, became an 
interne of the Elizabeth General Hospital, 
Elizabeth, New Jersey. After serving there 
for several months, he resigned to become 
Assistant Surgeon, with the rank of Lieu- 
tenant in the Third Regiment of New Jer- 



sey, which at that time was quartered in the 
South with other troops, awaiting a call to 
the front in the Spanish-American War. 
He served with the Third Regiment until 
it was mustered out and was then trans- 
ferred to the Fourth, remaining with it un- 
til the close of the war. 

The Doctor then entered general practice 
in Summit, New Jersey, where the Gray 
family made their home after leaving Jer- 
sey City in 1891. In a short time, by rea- 
son of his ability and sterling character, he 
made a name for himself among his asso- 



BIOGRAPHICAL CYCLOPEDIA 



179 



ciates in the medical profession, and built 
up a large practice in Summit and the sur- 
rounding towns. He was a physician who 
had the highest regard for the ethics and 
etiquette of his profession. With him, pro- 
fessional duty was always first aiul he 
served the poor as capably and conscien- 
tiously at all hours and seasons as he did 
those who were able to compensate him for 
his skill. His zeal, however, was beyond 



his strength. A heart trouble contracted 
from an attack of rheumatic fever, aggra- 
vated by the hard work that was his por- 
tion, had a fatal termination on January 
22nd, 1909. Dr. Gray was a member of 
several medical societies and fraternal or- 
ganizations. For years he occupied chairs 
in Overlook Lodge 163, Free and Accepted 
Masons of Summit. 



AUGUSTUS W. CUTLER 



MORRISTOWN 



IT seldom falls to the lot of a single indi- 
vidual, even in this country of unparal- 
leled opportunity and wonderful accom- 
plishment, to achieve in the line of public 
service such a vast and lasting benefit to 
mankind as is credited to the subject of this 
appreciation. During his double term in 
Congress, extending from December 6, 
1875, to March 3, 1879, he introduced the 
first bill ever presented to that body creat- 
ing a Department of Agriculture. This 
measure was referred to the Committee on 
Agriculture, by whom it was laid aside 
without further action. He re-introduced 
it in the next session, and supported it with 
a speech that attracted more than ordinary 
attention at the time and elicited hearty 
commendation from the great mass of peo- 
ple who were the most immediately inter- 
ested in its provisions. This time he met 
with a little better success. His bill was 
passed in the House, but when running the 
gauntlet of the Senate it was killed. His 
eflTort, however, was not wasted. He had 
planted good seed in rich soil, and in a suc- 
ceeding session the ripe fruitage appeared 
in the adoption of his measure. 

While his record, both as a State and a 
National legislator, was rounried out with 
other achievements that have grown in im- 
portance with the increase of years, this 
single measure will remain most conspicu- 



ous because of what the Department of Ag- 
riculture has since become — one of the most 
potent executive branches of the National 
Government. Under it are the Weather 
F>ureau ; the Bureaus of Animal Industry, 
Agricultural Chemistry, Entomology, Bio- 
logical Survey, Plant Industry, and Soils ; 
the Agricultural Cottages and Experiment 
Stations ; the Office of Public Roads ; and 
the newly-expanded Forest Service. Fos- 
tered by it the farms and farm property in 
the United States reached a value in 1900 
of $20,514,001,838; the domestic exports of 
farm products were valued at $1,055,000,- 
000 in 1907, when for the first time in the 
history of the world a cotmtry exported 
agricultural commodities of home produc- 
tion exceeding one billion dollars in value; 
and the value of the wealth produced on 
the farms in 1908 reached the most extra- 
ordinary total in the country's history — 
$7,848,000,000, or four times the value of 
the productions of the mines. When the 
creator of the National Department of Ag- 
riculture was drafting the bill which ulti- 
mately gave it life, he doubtless foresaw a 
vast benefit that would accrue to the farm- 
ing community : but no prescience could 
then gauge the enormous importance which 
the agricultural industry has now reached 
under the active and diversified promotion 
of the Department. 



i8o 



BIOGRAPHICAL CYCLOPEDIA 



Augustus W. Cutler (baptized William 
Augustus), lawyer, legislator, and public 
benefactor, was born in Morristown, Mor- 
ris County, New Jersey, October 22, 1829. 
On both the paternal and maternal side he 
was of distinguished and patriotic lineage. 
He was a son of Joseph Cutler, a Brigadier- 
General of New Jersey cavalry in the War 
of 1812 ; a grandson of Abijah Cutler, who 
achieved distinction in the Revolutionary 
War ; a great-grandson on the maternal side 
of Silas Condict, a delegate to the Continen- 
tal Congress in 1781-84, President of the 
New Jersey Committee of Safety in the 
Revolutionary War, and Speaker of the 
New Jersey House of Assembly for several 
years. He was also a direct descendant of 
John and Priscilla Alden. 

His early youth was passed on his 
father's farm, where he acquired a fondness 
for agricultural and horticultural pursuits 
and investigations that remained strong 
with him through life. He obtained the or- 
dinary education of the day, and mostly by 
his own efforts became versed in the law. 
After a course of study in the office of 
Daniel Haines, subsequently twice Gover- 
nor of New Jersey and a Justice of its Su- 
preme Court, at Hamburg, Sussex County, 
New Jersey, he was admitted to the bar in 
1850, and soon afterward entered into ac- 
tive participation in local and county af- 
fairs. In 1854 he married Julia R. Walker, 
of Albany, New York, a lineal descendant 
of Peregrine White, the first American 
child born in New England after the land- 
ing of the "Mayflower" Pilgrims. Three 
sons were born of this union : Willard 
Walker Cutler, who became Presiding 
Judge of the Morris County Courts ; Con- 
dict Walker Cutler, vifho adopted the pro- 
fession of medicine ; and Frederick Walker 
Cutler, who entered the ministry of the 
Presbyterian Church. 

In 1854 Mr. Cutler became a member of 
the Board of Education of Morristown, in 
which he served for twenty-one years con- 
secutively, and of which he was President 
for several years. In 1856 he was chosen 



Prosecutor of the Pleas, and he filled this 
office with signal ability for five years. 
Originally an old-time Whig, when that 
party was dissolved he allied himself with 
the Democratic party, and in 1871 was its 
successful candidate for the New Jersey 
Senate, where he served till 1874. During 
this period he was also a member of the 
State Constitutional Convention (1873). 
Mr. Cutler's service to his native State ex- 
tended over many years, and comprised a 
number of reforms of enduring value. Of 
all the compliments paid him during his ac- 
tive life, he was probably proudest of being 
acknowledged as the father of the free- 
school system of New Jersey. As early as 
1 86 1 he had drawn the original free-school 
bill, and in 1864 he had initiated a memor- 
able contest against the railroads of the 
State to secure the control of the riparian 
lands and the application of the proceeds of 
their sales and rentals to the promotion of 
free schools. He won this contest, and dur- 
ing the first year of the operation of the law 
the State free-school fund received over 
$1,000,000 from this source. He also intro- 
duced and vigorously supported the bill 
making women eligible to the office of 
school trustee, introduced the General Rail- 
road Act (1874), and was ever alert in pro- 
moting the interests of the colored race. 

Mr. Cutler was first elected a representa- 
tive in Congress in 1874, when he received 
a majority of seven votes over William 
Walter Phelps, a widely-popular Republi- 
can opponent, later a member of Congress 
and American Minister to Germany. In 
1876 he was re-elected by a majority of 
about fourteen hundred, and in 1878 he 
was renominated for a third term, but de- 
clined to accept. What has been assumed 
as his most beneficial service in Congress 
has been detailed in the introduction to this 
sketch. Not only in Congress but through- 
out the rest of his life he was an earnest 
advocate of whatever measures would con- 
duce the welfare of the great farming 
community, and in his private life he ap- 
plied much of his time to practical demon- 



BIOGRAPHICAL CYCLOPEDIA 



i8i 



strations on several farms he had ac- 
quired. He was most truly a repre- 
sentative of the people of his Con- 
gressional District. He gave up his 
law practice in order to familiarize himself 
with the conditions and needs of his con- 
stituants, and he personally studied their 
interests in mills, factories, mines, and oth- 
er industrial centers. In Congress, too, his 
old-time fervor for free schools again man- 
ifested itself, when he introduced and 
urged with characteristic enthusiasm a bill 
to appropriate the proceeds of sales of pub- 
lic lands to the different States and Ter- 
ritories, according to their population, for 
the benefit of free schools. 

Next to the farmer and free school liis 
most active zeal was shown in safe-guard- 
ing the interests of the soldier of the Civil 
War. fnder the original Enlistment Act 
a soldier was entitled to a pension from the 
date of his disability ; but Congress, in 
considering appropriations for pensions, 
reckoned from the time of granting ihe 
pensions, thus leaving a considerable gap 
unprovidfed for. Unable to secure from 
the Pension Office a statement of the 
amount necessary to cover this gap, the 
committee on appropriations failed to make 
an enlarged appropriation. In this emerg- 
ency Mr. Cutler introduced a bill to appro- 
priate $100,000,000, "or as much thereof 
as shall be necessary to meet this deficiency 



and to carry into effect the provisions of 
the bill." This was the first bill ever in- 
troduced into Congress so worded, now 
a common practice. The appropriation 
committee adopted it, and so remedied an 
injustice to the soldier. 

In 1895 Mr. Cutler made an open can- 
vas for the gubernatorial nomination, for 
which his name had been mentioned several 
times. The prize, however, went to Chan- 
cellor Alexander T. McGill, and in the po- 
litical landslide of that year the entire 
Democratic ticket was lost. In the follow- 
ing year Mr. Cutler supported the Presi- 
dential ticket of Bryan and Sewall, and 
was again a candidate for Congress, but in 
the latter contest he was defeated by 
Mahlon Pitney, who had carried the dis- 
trict two years before. This closed his 
public career. In December, 1896. he un- 
derwent a surgical operation, from which 
he died at his home on January i, 1897. 
Mr. Cutler, happily, lived to see his most 
cherished public measure enacted into per- 
manent laws. Every cause designed to ad- 
vance the welfare of humanity found in 
him a stanch supporter. Integrity and love 
of truth, courage in defending the right and 
great tenacity of purpose, together with 
unfaltering faithfulness in the performance 
of duty, were the dominating features of 
his character, antl account for the success 
of his many public undertakings. 



JACOB L. NEWMAN 

NEWARK 



JACOB L. NEWMAN, a member of the 
Newark bar, was born in Newark, New 
Jersey, Februan,- 13, 1875, and is the son of 
Meier and Bella Newman. His early edu- 
cation was obtained in the Lawrence Street 
Grammar School, from which he entered 
the Newark High School, and the course 
therein was supplemented by private tuition 
under the late Professor George C. Sonn. 



Entering the New York L^niversity, he was 
graduated in 1895 with the degree of Ph.B. 
Having decided to become a member of 
the legal profession, he entered, as a stu- 
dent, the office of Messrs. Edward M. 
Colie and Francis J. Swayze, the latter now 
Justice of the Supreme Court, and under 
their direction pursued the study of law. 
He attended the New York Universitv Law 



1 82 



BIOGRAPHICAL CYCLOPEDIA 



School, and in 1897 obtained his degree of 
LL.B., and was admitted to the bar of New 
York. In November, 1897, he was admitted 
as an attorney to the New Jersey bar and 
in 1900 he was admitted as a coun- 
sellor. 

He was appointed Supreme Court Com- 
missioner by William S. Gummere, Feb- 
ruary 29, 1904, an appointment which he 
still holds. He has been very successful in 
his profession and has made rapid strides 
of advancement, and is regarded as an able 
trial lawyer and possesses considerable 
forensic ability. He has a varied and gen- 
eral practice and is counsel for the follow- 
ing building and loan associations ; Federal 
Building and Loan Association, Fairmount 
Building and Loan Association, and Broad 



and Market Building and Loan Association. 
He is a member of Oriental Lodge No. 51, 
Free and Accepted Masons, a thirty-two 
degree Mason and a noble of the mystic 
shrine (a member of Salaam Temple). 

Mr. Newman is an active member of the 
Democratic party, and, being possessed of 
oratorical abilities of a high order, has aid- 
ed his party materially during its political 
campaigns. He is possessed of magnetic 
personality and enjoys the companionship 
of those with whom he comes in contact. 
He is a member of the Jeffersonian, Joel 
Parker, Progress and Lawyers' clubs, and 
has frequently delivered addresses for lit- 
erary societies. He was married on June 
28, 1906, to Flora Stern, of Newburgh, 
New York. 



EDWARD W. GRAY 

NEWARK 



EDWARD W. GRAY was born in Jer- 
sey City, New Jersey, on August 18, 
1870. He is of Irish and Scotch-Irish par- 
entage. His father, Edward Gray, was in 
the wholesale and retail shoe business until 
his retirement ten years ago. The son at- 
tended Public School No. 7 of Jersey City 
and the Jersey City High School. He then 
engaged in the shoe business with his fath- 
er, remaining at that for three years or 
more, when he became connected with the 
Preferred Accident Insurance Company of 
New York City. Always ambitious to take 
up newspaper work he was, for several 
years, in connection with his regular busi- 
ness, a special contributor to New York 
newspapers. Upon receiving an offer from 
the New York Herald, he left the insurance 
business and became a staff reporter on that 
newspaper. Later he connected himself 
with the New York World, at that time un- 
der the city editorship of Charles E. Rus- 
sell. 

Mr. Gray, however, was so much of a 



New Jersey man that when he had the op- 
portunity to engage in newspaper work in 
his own State, he took advantage of it. He 
accepted the position of assistant city editor 
of the Newark Daily Advertiser just at the 
outbreak of the Spanish-American War. In 
a short time he was made city editor and 
from there progressed until he was made 
president and general manager of the New- 
ark Daily Advertiser Publishing Company. 
He resigned from that position January i, 
1904. and the following fall was placed in 
charge of the publicity bureau of the Re- 
publican State Committee, then directing 
the campaign for Governor of the Honora- 
ble Edward C. Stokes. Governor Stokea 
was so impressed with Mr. Gray's work, 
that, although he had never met him before 
the campaign, he appointed him as his Sec- 
retary upon taking office. Mr. Gray served 
in this position until his term expired with 
that of Governor Stokes, in January, 1908. 
The year before he had been appointed by 
former Governor Murphy as Secretary of 





^^^o. 



/ 



X 



BIOGRAPHICAL CYCLOPEDIA 



183 



the Republican State Committee, which of- 
fice he still holds. 

Mr. Gray is also a member of the State 
Board of Tenement House Supervision of 
New Jersey. He was one of the Commis- 
sion appointed to investigate tenement house 
conditions, and upon the establishment of 
the Department by the State, was appointed 
as one of the Commissioners by Governor 
Franklin Murphy. In 1907 he was re-ap- 
pointed for a full temi of five years by Gov- 
ernor Stokes. Since leaving his position as 



Secretary to the Governor, Mr. Gray's chief 
occupation has been insurance. In the spring 
of the present year, (1909) he began to or- 
ganize, with his associates, the Commercial 
Casualty Insurance Company, the first cas- 
ualty insurance company in New Jersey do- 
ing a multiple line business. He is now sec- 
retary of the company. Mr. Gray is mar- 
ried and has three children. His wife, be- 
fore her marriage, was Miss Altha Rey- 
nolds Hay, daughter of the late Robert 
Hay, of Summit, New Jersey. 



WALLACE McILVAINE SCUDDER 

NEWARK 



WALLACE McILVAINE SCUD- 
DER, editor and publisher of the 
Newark Evening Xczcs, was born in Tren- 
ton, New Jersey, December 26, 1853. His 
parents were the Honorable Edward Wal- 
lace Scudder, late Justice of the Supreme 
Court of New Jersey, and Mary Louisa 
(Drake) Scudder, daughter of the Honor- 
able George King Drake who was also one 
of the justices of the New Jersey Supreme 
Court. He is a direct descendant of Thom- 
as Scudder, who was in Salem, Mass., in 
1635, and of Richard Scudder, who settled 
in Scudder's Falls on the Delaware River, 
four miles above Trenton about 1700. 

Mr. Scudder received his early education 
at the Trenton State Model School and in 
1873 was graduated from Lehigh Universi- 
ty with the degree of Mechanical Engineer. 
For some time he was employed in profes- 
sional capacity in the works of the Phoenix 
Iron Company and the New Jersey Steel 
Iron Company, in Trenton. Upon the sug- 
gestion of his father, he took up the study 
of law and one year (1876) attending the 
Harvard Law School. He pursued his of- 
fice studies with Garret D. \V. \room, of 
Trenton, and \ ice-Chancellor John R. Em- 
ery of Newark, and was admitted to prac- 
tice as an attorney in February, 1878, and 



was made a counselor at the February term, 
1881. 

Altliough fully equipped for a successful 
career at the bar, for which, inoreover, his 
abilities and connections well adapted him, 
Mr. Scudder soon discontinued his profes- 
sional practice to engage in journalistic en- 
terprise. In September, 1883, he established 
the Newark Evening Neivs, and, devoted his 
energies to the development of that newspa- 
per. His efforts were rewarded by success 
and the Newark Evening Nen's has long 
been the most widely circulated and im- 
portant daily paper published in the State of 
New Jersey. Both as a valuable newspaper 
property and as a journal of commanding 
influence it is the especial creation of Mr. 
Scudder, who has always been its controll- 
ing s])irit, uniting the functions of editor 
and publisher. 

Mr. Scudder is a Director in tiie Essex 
County National Bank, and the Security 
Savings Institution. I*"or two years ( 1881- 
83 ) he served as a member of the Newark 
I'.oard of Education. He is first Vice-Presi- 
dent of the New Jersey Historical Society, 
and is a member of the Essex Club, the Es- 
sex County Country Club, the Baltusrol 
Golf Club, the Newark Athletic Club, the 
North End Club, and other social organiza- 



1 84 



BIOGRAPHICAL CYCLOPEDIA 



tions. He is a member of the vestry of 
Trinity Church, Newark. He married, Oc- 
tober 27, 1880, Ida Quinby, daughter of the 
late James A. Quinby, of Newark. She 
died in 1903, survived by two children, Ed- 



ward Wallace Scudder and Antoinette Quin- 
by Scudder. In 1906 Mr. Scudder was mar- 
ried to Gertrude Witherspoon of New 
York, daughter of the Reverend Orlando 
Witherspoon. 



JOHN ILLINGWORTH 

NEWARK 



JOHN ILLINGWORTH, who attained 
notable distinction as an inventor and 
manufacturer, and who was for years a 
commanding and influential factor in the 
steel industry of this country, was born in 
Yorkshire, England, in 1836. He is the 
sixth son of Robert Illingworth and Mary 
Broadhead, both natives of England, 
and through whom he traces his de- 
scent from old and sturdy English 
ancestral stock. The elder Illingworth was 
known throughout Yorkshire as "Honest 
Robert," a title acquired and well earned 
after many years' service in his native 
county as tax collector. He has been just- 
ly described as "a consistent churchman 
and one whose Christianity was exempli- 
fied in his ardent desire to accord to others 
those rights which he claimed for himself, 
without ever meddling with their affairs." 
He was a farmer and he brought up his 
nine children on the farm with a view to 
their following a like career. 

The son, John, shared in this training 
and spent his early life in agricultural pur- 
suits, performing his full share toward the 
maintenance of a large family. He attend- 
ed the local school a portion of each year 
until he was thirteen years of age, after 
which his time was entirely devoted to 
work. It will consequently be seen that 
he began his career under circumstances 
that most men could not have overcome, 
and that in carrying out for himself, alone 
and unaided, a name and fortune, he stands 
as a model type of the self-made man. It 
was in 1855, when he was about eighteen 



years of age, that he left England and 
came to this country, locating in Jersey 
City, and finding employment in the Adi- 
rondack Steel Works there, notable as the 
first crucible steel works in the United 
States, of which his brother, Benjamin, 
who had preceded John to this country in 
1848, was then manager of the hammer de- 
partment. Benjamin Illingworth had 
learned his trade in England, in the Shef- 
field Steel Works, and was a skilled me- 
chanic. He afterward attained prom- 
inence in the American steel industry and 
was one of the organizers of the James R. 
Thompson Company, successful and ex- 
tensive steel manufacturers, of which con- 
cern he remained one of the principal part- 
ners for more than a quarter of a century. 
John Illingworth became an apprentice 
under his brother, Benjamin, in the Adi- 
rondack Steel Works, and from the very 
outset exhibiting a pronounced aptitude 
for the trade. He applied himself to the 
duties assigned him with such zeal and in- 
telligence that he speedily mastered every 
detail of the business and became an ex- 
pert in everything pertaining to the man- 
ufacture of steel. In 1864 he became a 
member of the firm of Prentice, Atha & 
Company, in the making of steel, an indus- 
try which was that year begun in Newark 
by that concern, and which was continued 
by them until 1871, when the firm became 
Benjamin, Atha & Company. Since 1891 
the enterprise has been known as Atha & 
Illingworth, and it is one of the leading 
and most successful industries of its kind 




/^r^Ci,^ JllL^CUrrzMT 



BIOGRAPHICAL CYCLOPEDIA 



185 



in the country, its products being exten- 
sively esteemed because of their uniform 
high quahty. About seven hundred hands 
have steady employment in the operation 
of the firm's large and perfectly ecjuipped 
plant and the principal product of manu- 
facture consists of crucible and open- 
hearth steel. Various kinds of machines 
are also manufactured, several of which 
are of Mr. Illingworth's invention. 

As an inventor, Mr. lUingworth has dis- 
played true genius. The device for casting 
skate steel is one of his first patents and 
possesses rare practical value. By this in- 
vention, hard and soft steel are cast in 
combination, the lower side of the skate 
being hard and the upper side soft. The 
next invention of Mr. Illingworth was the 
"roll discs," a device for rounding and 
polishing steel. This machine was pat- 
ented in 1882, and two years later an im- 
provement was made for guiding the rods 
through the dicsc, which became very val- 
uable, as this patent had broad claims in 
advance of all other machines of the kind, 
making all subsequent inventions depend- 
ent upon this one. In 1892 Mr. Illingworth 
patented a machine to prevent piping in 
the casting of ingots, a device that subse- 
quently gained general adoption. In 1894 
an improvement was made in this machine 
whereby ingots may now be cast and com- 



pressed at the same time. Mr. Illingworth 
is the inventor and ])atcntc'e of many oth- 
er valuable inventions, in the manufac- 
ture of which his comijany have found 
great profit. He finds pleasure in his work, 
and during his active life devoted himself 
to his manufacturing interests, and his in- 
ventive labors with an earnestness and 
closeness of attention that were worthy of 
remark. 

Mr. Illingworth is now living retired in 
his beautiful home on Park Place, New- 
ark, enjoying a well-earned rest after a 
long and exceptionally active career, 
wherein he added materially to the means 
by which the resources of the country are 
developed. He is a Republican in his po- 
litical principles, and has always taken a 
warm interest in the success of his party. 
But although a lover of the country of his 
adoj)tion and at all times ready to co-oper- 
ate in anything that tends to promote the 
public welfare, he has never had any ambi- 
tion toward public life and has invariably 
declined the political honors which have 
from time to time been offered him. Mr. 
Illingworth married in 1870 Maggie V. 
Williams, of Newark, and is the father of 
three children, two sons and one daughter, 
namely: Clarence, William H., and Ida 
M. 



JAMES GAMBLE ALDEN 

NEWARK 



JAMES GAMBLE ALDEN, a promi- 
nent insurance man of Newark, was 
born in Newark, July 18, 1844. His father. 
James Weeks Alden, was born in Xcw 
York City in 181 5 and removed to Newark. 
He was prominently identifierl with the city 
during his entire life. He was a musician 
of ability and is still remembered by the 
older citizens of Newark as one of the 
famous quartet known in its time as the "4 



Jims", the other members being James 
Gamble, who was Sheriff, James Ross of 
the Newark Daily Advertiser, and Major 
James Carter, a jewelry manufacturer. 
James Weeks Alden .sang in grand opera 
and was active in the formation of the 
Harmonica and Mendelssohn L'nion Sing- 
ing Societies of New York City. He was 
chorister of the Market -Street Dutch Re- 
form Church of Newark for many years. 



i86 



BIOGRAPHICAL CYCLOPEDIA 



He married Anna Margaret Weeks, a de- 
scendant of one of the Revolutionary and 
Dutch famihes of Manhattan. 

The grand fadier of James Gamble Alden 
was Captain James Alden who owned a 
lumber yard in Newark and ran the first 
schooners between Newark and Albany, 
"The Northern Liberties" and "The Sarah 
Ann." He died at the age of ninety-two 
years and six months. He had three sons, 
James Weeks Alden, Colonel Joseph L. Al- 
den and Thomas C. Alden, and one daugh- 
ter, Matilda Alden, who married William 
Silvey. The family is directly descended 
from the Pilgrim John Alden, who came to 
Plymouth, Massachusetts, in the Mayflow- 
er", in 1620, the subject of this sketch be- 
ing in the eighth generation from the Amer- 
ican Pioneer. 

James Gamble Alden moved to New 
York City in 1852. When he was eighteen 
years of age he was graduated from the 
New York Academy — afterwards the Col- 
lege of the City of New York, — and then 
entered the hardware trade in which he re- 
mained until 1870. Then he engaged in 
the fire insurance business with which he 



has since been occupied. Returning to New- 
ark in 1875 he has made his residence in 
that city since that time. In the New York 
draft riot he saw military service and after- 
wards enlisted in a New York regiment 
toward the close of the war but saw no ac- 
tive service, as peace was declared before 
the regiment could go to the front. Af- 
terwards he was a member of the Twenty- 
second Regiment of the National Guard 
of New York, and served seven years. He 
is a member of the order of Free and Ac- 
cepted Masons, the Benevolent Protective 
Order of Elks, the Improved Order of Red 
Men and the Thirteen Club. A Republi- 
can in politics, he has been a member of the 
Executive Committee of the Republican 
County Committee of Essex County. He 
belongs to the Church of the Redeemer in 
Newark. He married, in 1865, Mary Viva 
Nelson of Belfast, Ireland. His children 
are Emily L., Eleanor M., Mary M. and 
James W. Alden. His son graduated from 
the Stevens Technical Institute and' is a 
mechanical engineer in the employ of the 
Public Service Corporation of New Jer- 
sey. 



MARK CARL MELTZER 

NEWARK 



M 



ARK CARL MELTZER who is re- 
garded as one of the best informed 
insurance men in the country was born in 
Germany April 15, 1866; the son of Simeon 
and Theresa Meltzer. Brought to this coun- 
try when he was a child, he was educated in 
the public schools and in the Metropolis 
Law School of New York City. Early in 
life he engaged in the printing business in 
which pursuit he was occupied until 1887. 
In that year he became engaged with the 
Metropolitan Life Insurance Company as 
an agent and afterwards as Assistant Sup- 
erintendent, Inspector and Superintendent. 
That connection he retained until 1900, 



when he became a general agent in New 
York City for the Equitable Life Assurance 
Society of the United States. He was also 
the Traveling Agency Supervisor of the 
Western Departments of the Equitable So- 
ciety. Later he was the senior member of 
the firm of Meltzer & Gray, general agents 
for the Equitable Society for the State of 
New Jersey with offices in Newark and 
New York City; and he is now in 1909, the 
only member of that agency. 

Mr. Meltzer is a member of the National 
Life Underwriters Association, the New 
York Underwriters Association, the Metro- 
politan Board of Managers, the Harlem 










, C 'U^-^J^^ ^ 



BIOGRAPHICAL CYCLOPEDIA 



187 



Board of Commerce and also of many local 
political clubs, fraternal organizations and 
masonic bodies. He is a Thirty-second de- 
gree Mason and a Mystic Shriner. His 
clubs are the Meridian of New York City, 



the Xew Jersey Automobile and the Forest 
Hill. He married in New York February 
22, 1890, Dora Sterne, and his children are 
Theresa M., Beulah R. and Mark C. Melt- 
zer, Jr. 



JASPER RAYMOND RAND 

MONTCLAIR 



JASPER RAYMOND RAND was born 
on October 17, 1837, in Westfield, Mas- 
sachusetts, a son of Jasper Raymond and 
Lucy (Whipple) Rand. On his father's 
side the family was of old New England 
stock, dating from Robert Rand who with 
his wife Alice (Sharpe) Rand, came to 
America and settled in Charlestown, Mass., 
in 1624. He was descended from Jasper 
Raymond Rand, Vicar of Norton (1578) 
and Prebendary of Durham (England) 
1606, of Gateshead, County Durham and of 
London. The coat-of-arms of the family 
shows a lion rampant charged with three 
chevrons ; and the crest, out of a coronet a 
boar's head in pale. 

The records show that the ancestors of 
Mr. Rand became sturdy patriots in the 
new world and fought for their home and 
country in the War of the Revolution. They 
were active in public life, founding towns 
and churches, holding public office, and were 
in every way ui)right and brave and pos- 
sessed of the confidence and esteem of their 
neighbors and countrymen. The name is 
connected with the founding of Shrews- 
bury, Massachusetts, and with the founding 
of the churches of that town. When the 
struggle for independence began, a Jasper 
Raymond Rand is recorded as a pri- 
vate soldier, a member of "Captain 
Ebenezer Ingall's Company, Colonel Job 
Cushing's Regiment of Militia belong- 
ing to the State of the Massachu- 
setts Bay in the Continental Sarvis." 
A brother, Daniel Rand, became a colonel 
and another brother, Ezekiel, was a ser- 



geant, both in the battle of Bunker Hill. 
Still another brother, Artemus Rand, died 
in the service of his country. 

On his mother's side also Mr. Rand had 
the blood of the patriots in his veins. She 
was a descendant of Deputy Governor Sam- 
uel Symonds of Massachusetts Bay Colony 
and Major John Mason, who was Deputy 
Governor of Connecticut and helped found 
the towns of Windsor, Saybrooke and Nor- 
wich. Her father was Joshua Whipple, a 
descendant of Elder Whipple who received 
a grant of land in Ipswich Hamlet (now 
Hamilton), Massachusetts, in 1638. He was 
a man of prominence, holding the chief 
town offices and serving on important town 
committees. Two of his sons held high mili- 
tary rank ; one known as "Major Matthew" 
was the father of William. Brigadier Gen- 
eral at the capture of Burgoyne, and one of 
the signers of the Declaration of Independ- 
ence. 

Mr. Rand's father, Jasper Raymond 
Rand, was bom in Shrewsbury, Massachu- 
setts, but settled in Westfield, Massachu- 
setts, where he became a prominent citizen 
because of his public spirit and public ser- 
vice. He was a man of weight and influ- 
ence, having twice represented his town in 
the State Legislature, and engaged in vari- 
ous other public interests, such as assisting 
to found the \^'estfield Bank. He was post- 
master in President Lincoln's administra- 
tion and was a strong Wliig leader. It was 
through his instrumentality that an appro- 
priation was secured for the State Normal 
School. His children received every educa- 



1 88 



BIOGRAPHICAL CYCLOPEDIA 



tional advantage, and young Jasper was pre- 
pared for his future in Middleboro Acad- 
emy, Fairfax, Vt., and in the Westfield 
Academy, which at that time was one of the 
foremost educational institutions of the 
Eastern States. He supplemented his edu- 
cation by studying law for about a year in 
the office of Judge Winchester, in Spring- 
field, Massachusetts. He decided, however, 
that the law was not to his taste as a life 
work, and entered business under his 
father's tutelage, in the manufacture of 
whips. The business was a very large one, 
the product of the Rand factories being in 
demand all over the world. As time went 
on he and his brother Addison C. Rand, 
gradually took charge of the business, one 
being employed in the oversight of the 
works in Westfield and the other remain- 
ing in New York to care for the interests 
there. 

On the retirement of Mr. Rand Senior, 
from active life, his son, Jasper, took over 
the interests of the business, while his 
brother who had become interested in the 
manufacture of mining machinery, was 
building up an extensive plant and putting 
out new and improved drills and air com- 
pressors. The brothers had been close 
companions from childhood and it seemed 
that they could not keep their business in- 
terests apart, finally joining in the organi- 
zation known as the Rand Drill Company. 
They prospered exceedingly and the bus- 
iness of the company has grown to large 
proportions. They are also manufacturers 
of high explosives, and manufactured rock- 
a-rock which was used with great effect in 
the removal of rocks in Hell Gate, and in 
removing submarine obstacles to naviga- 
tion in other waters. As employers, Mr. 
Rand and his brother were most generous 
and appreciative. Many of their employees 
have been with the firm for over twenty 
years and were always loyal and devoted to 
the firm's interests. Addison C. Rand was 
the president of the organization when he 
died and Jasper Raymond Rand succeeded 
to that position. 



Mr. Rand first took up his residence in 
Alontclair, in 1873. Like his ancestors be- 
fore him, he immediately sought to bene- 
fit his home town by taking an active inter- 
est in its betterment. He built a beautiful 
home on Hawthorne Place, was a member 
of the Town Committee for three years; 
two years member of the County Board of 
Freeholders, and organized and became 
president of the Montclair Bank, which of- 
fice he held until his death. During his 
time in office, the town improved in every 
way, and tJie realty values there rose rap- 
idly. He also contributed to building up 
the social life of Montclair by founding 
the Montclair Club and aiding in the erec- 
tion of a club house, which is now known 
as one of the finest club houses outside of 
New York city. He was its president for 
several years. Through his energy and 
ability he assisted materially in freeing the 
t'irst Congregational Church, of which he 
was trustee, from a heavy debt, and in oth- 
erwise adding to its prosperity. 

Mr. Rand married in i860, Annie Mar- 
garet Valentine. She was descended from 
Italian and Dutch stock. The name of 
Valentine is very old and dates back to the 
second century, while that of Wannamaker, 
the name of her mother's ancestors was 
that of an old and honorable Holland fam- 
ily. Five children were born to Mr. and 
j\Irs. Rand. Florence Osgood, now Mrs. 
Henry Lang of Montclair, N. J.; Albert 
Holland, who died in infancy; Josephine 
Freeman, who married in April 1892, El- 
fric Drew Ingall of Ottawa, Canada, and 
died the following December ; Annie Grace 
Holland, who died in 1889, and Jasper 
Raymond, who died March 30, 1909. 

Mr. Rand was possessed of a very strong 
personality; genial, kind and universally 
courteous. His mind was keen and dis- 
cerning to an unusual degree and his judg- 
ment in business and public matters was of 
the kind that was relied upon when ques- 
tions of importance and needing careful 
consideration were to be decided. He was 
always ready to assist others in any way 



BIOGRAPHICAL CYCLOPEDIA 



189 



possible and was a useful and beloved citi- 
zen. He was a Master Mason; member of 
the New England Society; the Hardware 



Club; the Engineers' Club of New York; 
and the American Institute of Mining En- 
gineers. He died July 18, 1900. 



AUGUST W. ROSINGER 

NEWARK 



AUGUST W. ROSINGER, a member 
of the Essex County Bar, was born in 
Germany, December 31, 1853. He is the 
son of John H. Rosinger, and traces his 
descent through both father and mother 
from old and respected German lineage. 
He was brought to this country in 1861 by 
his parents, who settled in New Jersey, 
where the son received his education in the 
public schools of Harrison and Newark 
and under private tutelage. Having a 
natural taste for the law, he decided to 
make that his profession and accordingly 
became a student in the office of Charles 
T. Glen, of Newark. He was admitted 
to the bar of New Jersey as an attorney 
at the November term, 1878, and as a coun- 
selor-at-law at the June term, in 1886. He 
became a member of the firm of 
Glen & Rosinger, where lie won hon- 
orable standing in his chosen profes- 
sion. His practice is large, and he 



is counsel for many important inter- 
ests. 

Mr. Rosinger is a Republican in his po- 
litical principles and while he takes a keen 
interest in the campaigns of his party, he 
has never had any ambition in the direc- 
tion of public office, preferring to concen- 
trate all his efforts upon his professional 
work. He is a member of a number of 
organizations. He is esteemed in Newark 
as a representative and useful citizen, and, 
personally, stands as high as in his profes- 
sion, his integrity and other striking quali- 
ties having gained for him the respect and 
confidence of all with whom he has been 
brought into contact. He was married in 
January, 1880, to Mary E. Davis, only 
daughter of tiie late William C. Davis, of 
Newark, who w-as a gallant soldier in the 
Civil War, having served in that struggle 
a.'> captain of Company H, Second District 
of Columbia volunteers. 



FRANCIS ASBURY NOTT, JR. 

EAST ORANGE 



FRANCIS ASBURY NOTT, JR., who 
ranks high among the younger mem- 
bers of the New Jersey bar as an able prac- 
titioner, was born October 19, 1873, in East 
Orange, New Jersey. He is the son of 
Francis Asbury Nott and Julia F. Ed- 
munds, daughter of Francis W. Edmunds, 
formerly president of the .-\merican Bank 
Note Company of New York. Mr. Nott is 
descended through both his parents from 



old and prominent American families. His 
father is a retired lumber merchant, who 
was for years actively identified with the 
lumber trade, in which he attained distinc- 
tion as one of its representative and most 
successful members. His grandfather was 
Judge Benjamin Nott, of the Court of 
Common Pleas of Albany county, New 
York. Benjamin N'ott studied law in the 
office of Martin \'an Burcn, afterward 



190 



BIOGRAPHICAL CYCLOPEDIA 



President of the United States, and was 
long a practicing lawyer in Albany, where 
he was eminent in his profession. He mar- 
ried Elizabeth Cooper, of Albany. The 
great-grandfather of Mr. Nott was Dr. 
Eliphalet Nott, who was for sixty-three 
years President of Union College and an 
educator of national repute. 

Francis Asbury Nott, Jr., received his 
rudimentary education in the Ashland 
School, East Orange, and was prepared un- 
der private tutors for Union College. Hav- 
ing decided upon the law as the profession 
most congenial to his inclinations, he en- 
tered the office of Philemon Woodruff, in 
Newark, as a student and was admitted to 



the bar of New Jersey at the June term, 
1901. Establishing himself in practice, he 
was not long in gaining enviable distinction 
in his calling as a lawyer of knowledge, and 
acquitting himself with credit in the causes 
entrusted to his charge. Mr. Nott is a Re- 
publican and takes an active part in the 
work of his party. In 1908 he was appointed 
Recorder of East Orange, in which capacity 
his services have added to his prestige. He 
is a member of the Lawyers' Club of Essex 
County and of Roseville Lodge No. 143, 
Free and Accepted Masons. He married 
September 14, 1904, Laura K. Bauscher, 
daughter of Henry M. Bauscher, M. D., a 
successful physician of New York. 



JOSEPH CONON FROELICH, PH. G., M. D. 

NEWARK 



JOSEPH CONON FROELICH, M. D., 
prominent alike in the medical circles 
and the political life of Newark, New Jer- 
sey, was born in the Third Ward of that 
city in 1869, where he made his home un- 
til 1908, when he became a resident of the 
Sixteenth Ward. He is the son of Ger- 
vasius and Catherine Froelich and is de- 
scended from old and respected families 
through both father and mother. His par- 
ents were both born in Haselstein, Hessen, 
Germany, and emigrated to America in 
1861, April 26, settling immediately in 
Newark when that city had about 61,000 
population. 

The son received his preliminary educa- 
tion in St. Mary's Parochial School and 
the Morton Street Public School of his na- 
tive city, afterwards taking courses in Cole- 
man's Business College and the New Jersey 
College of Pharmacy. After the comple- 
tion of his studies, he was, for a number 
of years, a clerk in the successful grocery, 
flour and feed business conducted by his 
father under the style of Froelich and Com- 
pany, of which firm he later became a mem- 



ber. Subsequently withdrawing from that 
field of endeavor, he began the study of 
medicine in the Long Island College Hos- 
pital in Brooklyn, where, after one year, his 
health became impared and he went to Ten- 
nessee in the hope and belief that the cli- 
mate there would prove of benefit. 

He entered the University of the South 
as a student of medicine and was graduated 
from the Medical Department of that insti- 
tution in 1901. Returning then to New 
York, he took a post-graduate course in 
the Long Island College Hospital, where 
he had previously studied, upon the comple- 
tion of which he established himself in the 
practice of his profession in his native city, 
where his ability and reliable, effective 
treatment of even the most difficult cases 
soon served to attract attention to him and 
draw support. He was not long in securing 
an extended and important practice, and in 
gaining reputation as a skillful and thor- 
oughly qualified physician. 

In his political convictions Dr. Froelich 
is a staunch Democrat, and for many years 
he has taken a warm interest in the cam- 



BIOGRAPHICAL CYCLOPEDIA 



191 



paign work of his party, going on the 
stump in advocacy of its cause and render- 
ing vahiable service in that connection, be- 
ing a forcible and affective speaker. He is 
an acknowledged leader of the Democratic 
party in his ward and his opinions carry 
weight in party councils, while his influence 
and popularity among the people at large is 
unquestioned. He has served with credit 
in the Common Council of Newark as the 
representative in that body from the Third 
Ward, holding places on its more important 
committees and performing efficient and 
faithful public service in his official capac- 
ity. He was trustee of the City Home and 
was chairman of the Committee on Hos- 
pitals, a responsibility for which his pro- 
fessional knowledge peculiarly fits him. He 



is now, in 1909, serving as Play Ground 
Commissioner, having been appointed by 
Mayor Jacob Haussling and confirmed by 
the Common Council to serve a term of 
two years. 

As a citizen he has always shown public 
spirit of a progressive type and he has ever 
lent his aid to those movements calculated 
to improve conditions or promote the ma- 
terial prosperity of his city. As a man he 
possesses many worthy qualities and high 
mental attainments, and no one in New- 
ark is more respected than he or commands 
greater confidence. Dr. Froelich married 
Emma Stehle, daughter of Philip and Cath- 
erine Stehle, of Newark, by whom he has 
one son, Gervasius A. Froelich, born, July 
24, 1906. 



ANDREW W. BRAY 

ORANGE 



ANDREW W. BRAY, of Orange, is de- 
scended from sturdy Revolutionary 
stock, three generations of his family hav- 
ing fought in the War for Independence. 
.■\ndrcw Bray, his great-grandfather, who 
married Cornelia Traphagen, was a private 
in the Hunterdon County, New Jersey, mi- 
litia. John Bray, his great-great-grand- 
father, married Susan Bray, and served as 
a lieutenant of Hunterdon County militia. 
His great-great-great-grandfather, Andrew 
Bray, was a private in the New Jersey Line, 
Continental Army. This Andrew Bray was 
the son of John and Susanna Bray, and 
married Margaret Watson. The official 
records of these Revolutionary patriots are 
in the adjutant-general's office in Trenton, 
and constitute one of the most remarkable 
exhibits in this connection in the history of 
New Jersey. 

Andrew W. Bray has inherited and de- 
veloped all the sterling qualities of his race 
— a race that has been resident in the col- 
ony and the State for many generations. 



and one which has always been active in 
patriotic and commercial capacities. He is 
the son of Andrew W. Bray, Sr., and Sarah 
Thompson; a grandson of John T. Bray 
and Euphemia Armstrong: and, as pre- 
viously stated, a great-grandson of Andrew 
Bray, one of the trio of Revolutionary pa- 
triots. Mr. Bray was born in Rockaway, 
Morris County, New Jersey, July 24, 1855. 
He received his education in the public 
schools of Belvidere, Warren County, and 
subsequently held the position of ticket 
agent at the Broad Street Station, Newark, 
from 1875 to 1887. Since that date he has 
been the New Jersey State Manager for the 
Massachusetts Mutual Life Insurance Com- 
pany of Springfield. Massacinisctts. In this 
latter position he has displayed great exec- 
utive ability and built up a large and suc- 
cessful business. He is one of the best 
known life insurance managers in the 
State, 

In |iul)lic life Mr. Bray has also been 
|irominent. He has served three terms as 



192 



BIOGRAPHICAL CYCLOPEDIA 



President of the Republican Club of New- 
ark and was a member of the Newark 
Board of Education from 1887 to 1891, re- 
moving subsequently to Orange, where he 
now lives. He is a member and for eight 
years was vice-president of the Sons of the 
American Revolution of New Jersey and a 
trustee of the National Society and from 
1906 to 1907 was Vice President General 



of the National Society. He is also a mem- 
ber of the New Jersey Historical Society, 
the East Orange Republican Club, also the 
Union League Club, of Orange, and the 
South Orange Field Club. 

He was married, December 12, 1883, to 
Philletta Crane Dalton, and has a daughter, 
Gertrude Bray, wife of Walter R. Okeson 
of Phoenixville, Pa. 



CHARLES HOPKINS HARTSHORNE 

JERSEY CITY 



CHARLES HOPKINS HARTS- 
HORNE, one of the leading mem- 
bers of the New Jersey bar was born No- 
vember 22, 185 1, in Jersey City, New Jer- 
sey. He is the son of Samuel Hopkins 
Hartshorne and Elizabeth Vincent Holmes, 
and comes from the Hartshorne family of 
New Jersey, notable as one of the oldest 
and most prominent in the State. The 
founder of the family in America was Rich- 
ard Hartshorne, a member of the Society 
of Friends, who came to this country in 
1669 and settled in New Jersey. To this 
family belonged William Hartshorne, who 
was treasurer of the first internal improve- 
ment society organized in the country, of 
which George Washington was president. 
William's son, — Joseph Hartshorne. — was a 
distinguished physician of his day, 1779- 
1850, and Joseph had two sons, Edward 
and Henry, who also achieved distinction in 
the medical profession, while a third son, 
Charles, was equally prominent in railroad 
circles, being president of the Lehigh Val- 
ley road at one time. 

Charles Hopkins Hartshorne spent his 
boyhood, until he was seventeen years of 
age, on his father's farm, at what is now 
Rumson Neck, near Seabright, New Jersey, 
overlooking the Shrewsbury River and the 
ocean. He was educated under private in- 
struction and, after leaving the paternal 
farm in 1868, he began the study of law in 



the office of Peter Bentley in Jersey City, 
being admitted to the bar of New Jersey as 
an attorney at Trenton in November, 1872, 
and as a counselor in 1875. Establishing 
himself in the practice of his profession in 
Jersey City, he speedily achieved repute and 
standing and came to be regarded as one of 
the best informed and most thoroughly 
qualified practitioners in Eastern New Jer- 
sey. Among the more important cases with 
which he has been connected are those of 
the Mayor et al. of Jersey City vs. Vree- 
land, 14 Vroom, 638, and the Provident In- 
stitution vs. Jersey City, 11 United States 
Reports, 506. 

Mr. Hartshorne is the author of "Harts- 
horne's New Jersey Index-Digest," and 
"Courts and Procedure in England and 
New Jersey." He is a lecturer in the New 
York Law School and is chairman of the 
State Board of Bar Examiners of New Jer- 
sey and has had a prominent and influential 
part in effecting reforms in court systems 
and in methods of legal procedure. He is 
interested also in philanthropic work and is 
president of "Whittier House," a social set- 
tlement in Jersey City that has received ex- 
tended and favorable comment. 

In his political principles and affiliations 
Mr. Hartshorne has always been an inde- 
pendent Democrat until recently, when he 
espoused the cause of Republicanism as 



BIOGRAPHICAL CYCLOPEDIA 



193 



better suited to his views of government. 
He is a member of tlie Town Council of 
Montclair, in which he has served since 
January, 1908, and has been identified in 
many movements for civic betlcrnient. 
He holds membership in a number of 
the leading clubs and other organiza- 
tions, in all of which he is popular, promi- 
nent and influential. He married in Boston, 



Massachusetts, October 16, 1889, Mariella 
Metcalf, who died in 1900. Mrs. liarts- 
horne was a daughter of Robert C. Met- 
calf, supervisor of schools in Boston and 
author of several educational books. There 
were no children born to this marriage. On 
October 20, 1909, in Pialtimore, he married 
Sarah Murray Stewart of West River, 
Maryland. 



CHARLES THOAIPSON DAY 

NEWARK 



CHARLES THOMPSON DAY, who 
attained distinction as an inventor and 
whose various devices displayed a genius 
and secured a popularity and general adop- 
tion that were exceptional, was a native 
of Newark, New Jersey, in which 
city he was born Ajsril 6, 1826. He 
was the son of Charles C. Day, of 
that place, and Eliza Conger, and was 
descended on both sides from old 
and prominent American ancestors. He 
traced his lineage through the paternal 
branch to George Day, one of the early set- 
tlers of New Jersey, while he came of 
equally notable stock on his mother's side, 
his maternal grandmother being a sister of 
General \\'ard and a member of a dis- 
tinguished family that had long figured 
prominently in State affairs. The father, 
Charles C. Day, was in his time one of 
Newark's leading and most representative 
citizens. He was County Clerk at one time, 
subsequently served several terms as a 
member of tiie Legislature, and was of- 
fered but declined the nomination for 
Mayor of his city. 

The son was educated in the Newark 
schools and even as a youth displayed the 
inventive turn of mind that caused him 
to take up the creation of new devices as his 
work in life. His first invention was a 
knitting machine that won wide favor and 
adoption, being a practical improvement 



over anything of the kind yet introduced. 
He subsecjuently invented a kerosene lamp 
top that proved successful as an article of 
commerce, and he devised a can opener that 
has never been excelled in its utility and 
general efficiacy. Mr. Day is best remem- 
bered, however, as the inventor of the pop- 
ular club skates, which met with an enor- 
mous sale all over the world, being accepted 
by skaters everywhere as the handiest and 
most approved type of skate ever made. 
Mr. Day realized handsomely from this 
creature of his active brain and superin- 
tended the manufacture and inarkcting of 
the product in a successful manner that 
showed him to be a man of business capac- 
ity and executive ability as well as a clever 
inventor. He wrote a history of this style 
of skates that was noteworthy as a literary 
work as well as entertaining, and which 
denoted the possession of marked talent as 
a writer in addition to his other qualities. 

A great reader and an untiring student, 
he made a German scholar of himself with- 
out help and was a man of broad informa- 
tion, fond of scientific research and ready 
at all times to take up and study the most 
obtuse and difficult subjects. He delighted 
in literature in all its forms and was per- 
sonally endowed with remarkable vigor, one 
of his favorite diversions and recreations 
being long walks that would have worn out 
many another man. His mental attain- 



194 



BIOGRAPHICAL CYCLOPEDIA 



ments were of tlie highest order, and he 
was esteemed by every one for his sterhng 
moral worth. He gave generously to char- 
ity and never tired of doing good. He was 
a Protestant Episcopalian in his religious 
faith and a Democrat of independent 



thought and action in his political course. 
A life-long resident of Newark, he died at 
his home in that city, February 27, 1906, 
survived by two sisters, ]\Irs. William Bond, 
of that place, and Mrs. William Nichols, of 
Jersey City. 



GEORGE THEODORE WERTS 

JERSEY CITY 



GEORGE THEODORE WERTS 
was born in Hackettstown, Warren 
County, New Jersey, March 24, 1846. His 
father, Peter Werts, died about 1886. He 
is a nephew on his mother's side of the late 
Attorney-General Jacob Vanatta. In 1849 
he moved with his parents to Bordentown, 
New Jersey, where he attended the public 
and high schools. He was later a student 
at the State Model School in Trenton, and 
at the age of seventeen went to Morris- 
town to read law in the office of Mr. Van- 
atta, where, after his admission to the bar 
in November, 1867, he commenced the 
practice of his profession. 

He was Recorder of that town from May 
1883, to May, 1885, and Mayor from 1886 
until he resigned in February, 1892. He 
was also State Senator from Morris Coun- 
ty from 1886 to February, 1892, when he 
resigned to accept the appointment by 
Governor Abbett of Associate Justice of 
the Supreme Court, succeeding the late 



Justice Knapp of the Hudson County Cir- 
cuit. While a member of the Senate he 
drafted the liquor and ballot reform laws, 
and during several sessions was the leader 
of his party (Democrat) on the floor. In 
1889 he officiated as President of the Sen- 
ate. 

In the fall of 1892 Mr. Werts was elected 
Governor of New Jersey over John Kean, 
Jr., the Republican nominee. He occupied 
his seat on the Supreme Court bench dur- 
ing the entire campaign, taking no per- 
sonal part in it beyond formally accepting 
the nomination, which was unanimously 
tendered him by the Democratic State Con- 
vention. His term began in January, 1893, 
and expired in January, 1896: 

Governor Werts was married, June 27, 
1872, to Emma M., daughter of Asher 
Stelle and Harriet Lathrop Runyon, of Pis- 
cataway, Middlesex County, and has two 
daughters: Mary Evelyn and Harriet E. 
Stelle. 



DAVID YOUNG 

NEWARK 



DAVID YOUNG, was born in Alloa, 
Scotland, May 6, 1849, ^rid is the eld- 
est son of William Young. He emigrated 
from Scotland with his parents when about 
four years of age. The family settled in 
Newark, New Jersey, where the child grew 



to manhood and received his education in the 
public schools and high school of that city. 
Even in childhood he displayed great abil- 
ity in arithmetic and as he advanced in 
years his aptitude for the higher mathe- 
matics became quite noticeable. 




JtQjuJI^ CwMma. 



BIOGRAPHICAL CYCLOPEDIA 



195 



In June, 1864, he entered the office of 
William L. Thompson, then the leading 
surveyor of Newark, and there acquired a 
theoretical and practical knowledge of sur- 
veying and civil engineering. In 1868 he 
formed a partnership with Mr. Young un- 
der name of Thompson & Young in which 
he continued until 1873, when he as.sociated 
himself with Harri-son Van Duyne in the 
same business, the firm being Van Duyne 
& Young. In 1891 that firm was dissolved, 
and Mr. Young continued in the business 
alone for a year, when his brother-in-law, 
C. M. Borrie, joined him under the firm- 
name of David Young & Company. He 
is a man of untiring encrgj' and persever- 
ance, and his professional work has been 
extensive and varied. Since 1868 he has 
been surveyor of the town of Harrison and 
township of Kearney in Hudson county, 
and has supervised all the public improve- 
ments made in both places. In politics, Mr. 
Young has always been a Republican. He 
was elected alderman of the eleventh ward 
in 1875, and was twice re-elected, serving 
six years, and for the last four years of 
that time was president of the council. He 
was elected President of Council at th^ 
early age of twenty-eight, the youngest man 
who has occupied the chair. In 1882 he 
was elected a member of the legislature, 
and re-elected in 1883. He served on the 
committee on corporations both years. For 



many years Mr. Young was the most 
active representative of the Essex Pas- 
senger Railway Company of Newark in the 
negotiations for the extension of their 
lines, etc., and secured all their franchises 
for operating by electricity. He continued 
to fill the same position with their succes- 
sor, the Newark Passenger Railway Com- 
pany. In 1894 this company leased its lines 
to the New Jersey Traction Company, of 
which he became president. Soon after, 
all the lines of tliis company were leased by 
the Consolidated Traction Company, which 
controls nearly all the street railways of 
Newark, Orange, Jersey City, Bayonne, 
and vicinity, of which company, in June, 
1893, was was made general manager. This 
company has the largest system of the 
kind in New Jersey, and one of the largest 
in the United States. Under his energetic 
management many other improvements 
were adopted, and the efficiency of the road 
greatly increased. May 15, 1903, Mr. Young 
retired from active participation in the man- 
agement of the Consolidated Traction Com- 
pany, and became associated with the bank- 
ing firm of Brown Bros. Co., as "Trolley 
Expert". 

Mr. Young was married May 10, 1871, 
to Mary Ells, daughter of Hercules M. 
Wilson, of Newark. They have three chil- 
dren. He belongs to the Masonic Fraternity 
and to several political organizations. 



CHARLES H. GAFFENEY 

NEWARK 



CHARLES H. GAFFENEY, whose 
entire career has been identified with 
telegraphic and railway interests, in which 
important field he has earned enviable re- 
pute as an expert in all relating to oper- 
ating, was born at Lawrence, in Mercer 
county. New Jersey, July 27, 1867. His 
earlier education was received in the pub- 
lic schools of his native town and of 



Princeton, New Jersey. In 1881 he started 
to learn telegraphy at Lawrence Station on 
the Pennsylvania Railroad, at the same 
time attending school in Trenton. In the 
early part of 1883 he entered the Trenton 
Business College, from which institution he 
was graduated with the highest honors in 
.April, 1885, receiving the gold medal 
awarded as first prize by the merchants of 



196 



BIOGRAPHICAL CYCLOPEDIA 



Trenton. In the fall of 1885 he entered 
the service of the Pennsylvania Railroad 
as extra operator and agent, performing 
the duties assigned with such fidelity and 
intelligence that he was promoted in the 
spring of 1886 to the position of assistant 
ticket agent at Trenton. That place he re- 
tained and efficiently filled until August, 
1888, when he was again advanced, this 
time to be assistant time clerk of the New 
York Division, with office at Jersey City, 
which he subsequently left to accept a po- 
sition as private operator to John Hoey, 
president of the Adams Express Company. 
Upon the death of Mr. Hoey he was trans- 
ferred to various departments of the com- 
pany as clerk until 1894, in which year he 
accepted a position with the National Stor- 
age and Dock Railway Company. Mr. 
Gaffeney remained with this company un- 
til September i, 1900, when he retired 
from its service in order to accept a more 
lucrative position with the Central Railroad 
Company of New Jersey as extra operator 
and agent, in which capacity he displayed 
such marked ability that he was speedily 
advanced to the position of chief clerk and 
assistant superintendent to the Superin- 



tendent of Telegraphy, located in the Cen- 
tral Building at 143 Liberty street. New 
York City, which responsible post he still 
holds. His knowledge of telegraphy is 
that of a master. He has made the science 
a close study and possesses a natural apti- 
tude for the calling that has enabled him to 
conquer its every detail and there is not 
a phase of the subject with which he is not 
familiar and at which he is not an adept. 

Mr. Gaffeney makes his home in New- 
ark, where he is well known and popular. 
He is a Democrat in his political prefer- 
ences and an active worker in the cam- 
paigns of his party, his services in this di- 
rection being recognized by the organiza- 
tion in 1907, when he received the nomina- 
tion from his district for Common Council, 
being elected a member of that body at the 
ensuing election. His subsequent record 
in the Common Council proved creditable 
and he exerted himself in the public inter- 
ests, rendering valuable service to the com- 
munity at large in his official capacity. He 
had a place on some of the most important 
committees, notable those on Finance, 
Printing and Stationery, Municipal Light- 
ing, and Band Concerts. 



JULIUS FELDMANN 

NEWARK 



JULIUS FELDMANN, a well-known 
and successful member of the New Jer- 
sey bar, was born at Newark, that State, 
December 7, 1874. He is the son of the 
late Joseph Feldmann and Dora Lichen- 
stein, and is of German ancestry on both 
sides. Mr. Feldmann received his earlier 
education in the public schools of his na- 
tive city and afterward at the Newark 
High School. He was graduated from the 
New York University Law School in 1895 
with the degree of Bachelor of Laws. In 
the meantime he studied law with J. Frank- 
lin Fort, who afterward became Supreme 



Court Justice and Governor of New Jer- 
sey. Mr. Feldmann was admitted to the 
bar of the State as an attorney in June, 
1896, and as a counselor in 1899. 

After his admission to the bar, he 
formed a partnership with Edwin G. 
Adams under the firm name of Adams & 
Feldmann as referees in bankruptcy. This 
relationship continued for four years, when 
the firm dissolved and Mr. Feldmann es- 
tablished himself in general practice on his 
own account. As a lawyer, he commands 
the respect of all familiar with his abili- 
ties. He has built up a large and import- 



BIOGRAPHICAL CYCLOPEDIA 



197 



ant clientage and is distinguished for the 
care that he exercises over the interests en- 
trusted to his charge. He has figured with 
success in a number of important cases and 
in every instance demonstrated his thor- 
ough knowledge of law and his capacity 
for coping with legal adversaries. 

Mr. Feldmann is a Republican politically 
and has performed some notable service 
for his party's cause in the campaigns of 
that organization, being at all times active 



in the support of party principles. He is 
a member of the Third Ward Republican 
Club, of Newark, and wields a potential in- 
fluence in the affairs of that body. He 
holds membership in Seth Boyden Council 
No. 184, Junior Order of United Ameri- 
can Mechanics, and in Newark City Con- 
clave No. 247, Independent Order of Hep- 
tasophs. Mr. Feldmann was married Sep- 
tember 23, 1906, to Mae Greenwood. They 
are the parents of one child, Jacob J. 



JACOB SCHREIHOFER 

NEWARK 



JACOB SCHREIHOFER, long promi- 
nent in the business life of Newark, 
New Jersey, where he was a leading and 
successful provision dealer, and at one time 
a factor in the Republican politics of 
Essex county, was born in Germany, 
May 25, 1847, 3nd died at his home 
in Newark, May 3, 1909, after an illness 
extending over six years. He was the son 
of Joseph and Annie Marie Schreihofer 
and was descended on both sides from old 
and respected German lineage. He re- 
ceived his education in the schools of his 
native country and came to the United 
States in 1865, when he was eighteen years 
of age, locating in Newark, where the rest 
of his life was spent. Shortly after his ar- 
rival there, he embarked in the provision 
business, the venture proving a success 
from the very outset, and for many years 
he conducted a stand in Centre Market 
and a store on South Eighteenth street, fin- 
ally retiring in 1904 by reason of failing 
health. 

As a business man Mr. Schreihofer pos- 
sessed all those qualities most essential to 
success. He was a man of sound judg- 
ment, unerring foresight and executive abil- 
ity. Fair and upright in all his dealings, 
he was highly esteemed and held the con- 



fidence of all with whom he had relations. 
He was energetic, progressive and enter- 
prising, and in his work displayed a capac- 
ity that stamped him as a man of more 
than ordinary intelligence. As a citizen he 
was public spirited and was interested in 
material welfare and development of his 
city, a cause to which he was always ready 
to extend his hearty support. An earnest 
upholder of the principles of Republicanism, 
he took active part in the campaign work 
of his party in Essex county and acquired 
recognition as one of the leaders of the or- 
ganization in the Thirteenth Ward of New- 
ark, where he resided, his opinions carry- 
ing weight in party councils and his in- 
fluence being extended and important. In 
1884 he was placed on the Republican ticket 
as the nominee for Freeholder from the 
Thirteenth Ward and was elected, his ser- 
vices in the Board of Chosen Freeholders 
of Essex County proving of so valuable a 
type that he was re-elected in 1885 and 
again in 1886. In 1885 he defeated Frank 
M. McDermitt for Assemblyman and in the 
State Assembly, as in the Board of Free- 
holders, he demonstrated his fitness for 
public life and acqtiittcd himself of his pub- 
lic duties with distinction and credit. In 
1895 he became a member of the Common 
Council of Newark, in which capacity he 



198 



BIOGR.\PHICAL CYCLOPEDIA 



rendered service that entitled him to the 
public thanks, carefully guarding the best 
interests of the tax payers and laboring to 
better the condition of the city in every 
way possible. 

Mr. Schreihofei' was a member of New- 
ark Lodge No. 21, Benevolent and Protec- 
tive Order of Elks; of Granite Lodge No. 
21, Knights of Pythias; of Guttenberg K. 
U. v.; of Black Prince U. R. F. C. B. No. 
4; of Karweiler K. U. V., of New York, 
and of Germania Lodge Free and Ac- 



cepted Masons. Domestic in his tastes and 
habits, Mr. Schreihofer was devoted to his 
home and family. He was a man of warm 
sympathies who gave liberally of his means 
in a quiet way to those purposes that he 
deemed worthy. He married Elizabeth 
Reinhardt, daughter of Nicholas Reinhardt 
and Annie Marie Reinhardt and was sur- 
vived by his widow. To this marriage were 
born eight children, all living: Jacob, John, 
Charles, Annie, William, Joseph, Freder- 
ick and Elizabeth. 



DOUGLAS D. T. STORY 

JERSEY CITY 



DOUGLAS D. T. STORY, lawyer, 
was born in Manchester, England, 
September 11, 1873. His father was Chris- 
topher Story and his mother was Isabella 
(Todd) Story. Brought to this country 
when he was a child he was educated in the 
public schools of New Jersey, and under 
private instructors, and then studied law 
in the New York Law School. Before and 
after completing his legal education, he 
was a stenographer in different courts in 
New York City, and also stenographer in 
the office of Vredenburgh & Garretson, 
lawyers. At the age of twenty-three he 



was admitted to practice at the bar of New 
Jersey in November 1896, and since that 
time he has practiced continually in Jersey 
City. In his political affiliations, he is in- 
dependent but has not been active in public 
affairs. He is a member of Lodge No. 211, 
of the Benevolent Protective Order of 
Elks, and of Lodge No. 74 of the Order of 
Owls. A Presbyterian in his religious per- 
suasions he is a member of the First Pres- 
byterian Church of Jersey City. He mar- 
ried in Jersey City, April 10, 1901, Ger- 
trude Goodlad, daughter of John T. Good- 
lad, of Jersey City. 



L. D. HOWARD GILMOUR 

NEWARK 



LD. HOWARD GILMOUR, a promi- 
, nent member of the Newark bar, was 
born in Cape May City, New Jersey, Oc- 
tober 27, i860. He is the son of Dr. Henry 
L. Gilmour and L. Pauline Howard, daugh- 
ter of Levi D. and Anna (Miller) Howard, 
the former, Dr. Gilmour, being a well- 
known dentist in Philadelphia. Mr. Gil- 
mour was educated in the South Jersey In- 



stitute at Bridgeton, graduating as honor 
man in the class of 1879. He read law 
in Camden, New Jersey, with Howard M. 
Cooper, and was admitted as an attorney 
before the Supreme Court at Trenton in 
February, 1885, and as a counselor in Feb- 
ruary, 1888. On April 3, 1893, he was ad- 
mitted to practice in the United States 
Supreme Court at Washington, 





^^^' ^-^^s^^^^^^ 



^!?t-A 



BIOGRAPHICAI. CYCLOPEDIA 



199 



Mr. Gilmour was connected with the law 
department of the Pennsylvania Railroad 
Company from 1885 until December, 1889, 
when he moved to Newark, where he has 
since practiced his profession with unin- 
terrupted success, having an office in the 
Prudential Building, 763 Broad street. 

He has made a specialty of real estate 
and corporation work, and the experience 
he has gained in this line places him among 
the leading corporation and real estate law- 



yers in this part of the state. Mr. Gilmour 
is now the assistant general counsel of 
Public Service Cc^rporation of New Jer- 
sey. Politically he is a zealous advocate of 
Republican principles. Mr. Gilmour was 
married -April 2, 1885, to Jennie D. Paullin, 
daughter of Norton L. and Maria D. 
(Dare) Paullin, of Bridgeton. New Jersey, 
and has two children : Howard C. and 
Marie Paullin. 



HENRY ALBERT POTTER 

EAST ORANGE 



HENRY ALBERT POTTER, of East 
Orange, is a direct descendant of 
George Potter, an officer in Cromwell's 
army, who accompanied that distinguished 
leader to Ireland and received for his ser- 
vices grants of land in County Fermanagh. 
Under the settlement of 1660, in the time 
of Charles II., he was confirmed in the pos- 
session of several estates in that county, 
afterward known as Potterstown or Pot- 
tersrath. The family is of Norman origin, 
the ancient spelling of the name being Pot- 
tier or Porterie. 

In 1 791 James Potter became the owner 
of property in County Tyrone which passed 
to his son, George Potter, who came to 
America in 1828 and settled in Philadel- 
phia, Pennsylvania, and who by his wife, 
Ann Scott, had a son Thomas. Thomas 
Potter was born at Relaghguincss, County 
Tyrone, Ireland, August 14, 1819. and died 
at Qiestnut Hill, Philadelphia. .September 
29, 1878. He was educated in Philadelphia, 
served for many years as a member of the 
City Council, and as Chairman of the Fi- 
nance Committee was chiefly instrumental 
in securing for the city the lan<l now known 
as West Fairmount Park, and in the estab- 
lishment of the paid fire department. In 
1837 he founded the house of Thomas Pot- 
ter, Sons & Co., one of the largest oil cloth 



and linoleum manufacturing concerns in 
the United States. He was President of 
the City National Bank of Philadelphia for 
many years up to the time of his death, 
held many positions of trust in municipal 
and financial corporations, and was a man 
of upright Christian character. He mar- 
ried Adeline Coleman Bower, daughter of 
George Bower and a granddaughter of 
General Jacob Bower, who was born in 
Reading, Pennsylvania, in September, 1757, 
and died at VVomelsdorf, Pennsylvania, 
.August 6, 1818. 

General Bower was a distinguished offi- 
cer in the Revolutionary War, becoming 
Quartermaster in Captain George Nagle's 
c()mi)any. Colonel Thompson's rifle bat- 
talion, June 25, 1775, which marched to 
Cambridge, Massachusetts, and took part in 
the battles of Bunker Hill and Lachmere 
Point. He was a Lieutenant in the First 
Pennsylvania Regiment. Continental Line. 
January 18. 1776; Captain in the Pcimsyl- 
vania Flying Camp, Continental Line, in 
1776; Captain in the Sixth Pennsylvania 
Regiment, February 15, 1776; and Captain 
in the Second Pennsylvania Regiment. Jan- 
uary I, 1783. to the close of the war, being 
then twenty-five years of age. He was one 
of the officers who, on May 13, 1783, in the 
Cantonment of the Hudson River, formed 



200 



BIOGRAPHICAL CYCLOPEDIA 



the General Society of the Cincinnati. He 
was an original member of the Pennsyl- 
vania Society of the Cincinnati, which con- 
vened in Philadelphia, October 4, 1783. His 
son, Dr. Henry Bower, succeeded to the 
membership in 1823, and his grandson, Dr. 
William Bower, in 1845. General Bovver 
was one of the five delegates appointed by 
the Pennsylvania Society of the Cincinnati 
to the first meeting of the General Society 
of the Cincinnati, held May 4 — 18, 1784. 
in Philadelphia, General Washington in the 
chair. In the War of 1812 Captain Bower 
was appointed by Governor Snyder, of 
Pennsylvania, Brigadjer-General command- 
ing the First Brigade, Sixth Division, 
Pennsylvania Regiments. 

The children of Thomas and Adeline 
Coleman (Bower) Potter were George, 
born August 7, 1846, died October 4, 1876; 
Margaret, born July 16, 1848, died No- 
vember 23, 1854; Thomas, Jr., born July 
12, 1850; William, who was Minister to 
Italy under President Harrison ; Margaret, 
2d, born December 12, 1854, married Ste- 
phen J. Meeker, of Newark, N. J., a de- 
scendant of one of the "Elizabethtown As- 
sociates" ; Henry Albert, the subject of this 
article ; James Bower, born November 2, 
1858 ; and Charles A., born October 4, i860. 

Henry Albert Potter was born in Phila- 
delphia, Pa., December 19, 1856. He 
pursued his preparatory studies at the 
Friends' Central High School, Phila- 
delphia, and entered the University of 
Pennsylvania with the class of 1877, but 
left at the end of his sophomore year and 
joined the class of 1877 at Lafayette Col- 
lege, where he was graduated with the de- 
gree of Bachelor of Science. He was a 
member of the Sigma Chi fraternity. He 
soon after entered his father's factory, 
worked his way up step by step, was ap- 
pointed superintendent, and in 1879 was re- 
ceived into the firm as a partner. The follow- 
ing year he established the New York 
branch, the business of which has steadily 
increased under his management. He built 



up a local trade second only to that of the 
parent house. 

Mr. Potter settled in East Orange in 
1880, and purchased tlie Reune Martin 
place at 95 Harrison street. He soon be- 
came interested in local politics and gradu- 
ally his influence extended throughout the 
State. At the present time (1909) he is 
recognized as one of the strongest leaders 
in the Republican party. While partici- 
pating in every movement for the advance- 
ment of party interests he is in no sense a 
politician according to the modern accepta- 
tion of tlie term. His position is always clear- 
ly defined and his course straightforward 
and upright. His entrance into public life 
began in 1885, when he was elected to the 
State Legislature. It was during the height 
of the labor agitation, and he had the com- 
bined elements of the Democratic and La- 
bor parties against him. The district in- 
cluded Orange and East Orange. His 
course in the Legislature was upright and 
exceedingly gratifying to his constituents. 
He introduced and carried through two im- 
portant measures relating to his own town- 
ship, viz., the division of East Orange into 
wards and the organization of the Board of 
Education. ]\Ir. Potter declined the nomina- 
tion for a second term tendered him by his 
party. He has been liberal in his donations 
to the party for legitimate expenses. In 
1888 he was a delegate to the National Con- 
vention which nominated Benjamin Harri- 
son ; and after the election, in which Mr. 
Potter took a prominent part, he was of- 
fered the position of Secretary of Legation 
at Berlin, by the Honorable William Walter 
Phelps, which he declined. He has made 
frequent trips to Washington on behalf of 
the oil cloth manufacturers, to protect their 
interests. 

Mr. Potter's efforts in behalf of Orange 
have been by no means limited to politics, 
but to whatever concerns the public good 
or advances the welfare of the people. He 
was one of the originators of the Orange 
Athletic Club, and was one of its Gov- 



BIOGRAPHICAL CYCLOPEDIA 



20I 



ernors; he also assisted in the re-organiz- 
ing and rebuilding of the Orange Club. He 
is a member of the Country Club and other 
social organizations. In January, 1897, he 
was appointed by Governor Griggs a mem- 
ber of his military staff. 

He married, April 9, 1879, ^liss Frances 
Green, daughter of the Honorable Henry 
Green, Chief Justice of the Supreme Court 
of Pennsylvania. Judge Green was the 
son of Enoch, son of John, son of Richard, 
son of Richard, son of William, the ances- 
tor who left England at an early age and 
landed at Philadelphia. William Green 
soon after visited Long Island and there 
became acquainted with John Ruder, whose 
sister or daughter he married. He removed 
to Ewing Township about 1700. He pur- 
chased 345 acres of Colonel Daniel Coxe, 
the deed bearing date 1712, and on it he 
erected the first brick house in the town- 



ship, which is still standing, having on tlie 
west end the date 1717. His qualities were 
such as to give him distinction, for he was 
appointed the first judge of Hunterdon 
County, New Jersey, and from the fre- 
quent mention of his name in public office 
he was evidently a prominent and useful 
citizen. John Green, the great-grandfather 
of Mrs. Potter, served in the Revolutionary 
War, in the First and Second Battalions of 
Salem, in the State troops, and also in the 
Continental Army. The mother of Mrs. 
Potter was Anna Hulsizer, daughter of 
Daniel Hulsizer and Qiristiana Hummer. 
Daniel Hulsizer was th« son of Christopher, 
son of Martin Hulsizer, who came from 
Germany about 1750, and located first at 
Phillipsburg and later resided at different 
points along the Musconetcong Creek. His 
sons were Christopher, Jacob, \'alcntine, 
and John Martin. 



FREDERICK FRAMBACH 

JERSEY CITY 
REDERICK FRAMBACH, distin- 



1 guished throughout New Jersey as a 
politcal leader, lawyer and jurist, whose 
brilliant career was cut short by death at 
a time when he was about to assume still 
higher judicial honors, was a native of 
New York City, in which place he was 
born October 11, 1856. He was the son 
of Frederick and Julia Frambach, and 
traced his descent from old and respected 
German lineage. Educated in the New 
York public schools, supplemented by a 
course in the College of the City of New 
York, Mr. Frambach took up the study of 
law in his father's office at Jersey City, the 
elder Frambach being a well-known and 
successful lawyer of his day. 

After his admission to the Bar the son 
became associated with the father in that 
profession, succeeding to the latter's prac- 
tice on the elder's death. As a lawyer, the 



younger Frambach was endowed with ex- 
ceptional talent and his rare ability won 
for him an enviable standing as a member 
of the New Jersey Bar. He was success- 
fully identified with considerable litigation 
of an important character, and the skillful 
manner in which he conducted the causes 
entrusted to his charge had the effect of 
gaining him wide repute as one of the 
ablest of practitioners. 

-A. Republican in his political views, Mr. 
Frambach's interest in the politics of his 
State was only equalled by his devotion to 
his professional duties. An active partici- 
pant in the campaigns of his party, he at- 
tamed prominence and influence therein 
as a recognized leader, and his services to 
the organization were neither slight nor 
unimportant. His advice was welcomed in 
party councils and he was a factor of 
weight among the people of his district. 



202 



BIOGRAPHICAL CYCLOPEDIA 



He was elected to the State Assembly in 
1885, serving with credit as a member of 
that body, and he was chosen as As- 
sessment Commissioner for Hudson Coun- 
ty in 1902, in which capacity his legal 
gifts proved of the fullest value to the pub- 
lic interests. He subsequently served as 
Judge of the District Court of Hoboken, 
acquitting himself in a manner that com- 
manded popular approval, his administra- 
tion of justice being marked by a digni- 
fied bearing, strict impartiality, and a pro- 
found knowledge of law. When he was 
appointed Judge of the United States Cir- 
cuit Court, it was everywhere conceded 
that the honor was worthily conferred, 
and that lie would, upon the bench, add 
fresh lustre to the high repute already 
earned. He never lived to enter upon 
these greater judicial duties, however, a 
premature and untimely death claiming 
him ere his allotted term began. 



Judge Frambach was counsel for vari- 
ous leading corporate interests, including 
the local building and loan associations. 
He filled the presidency of the Fremont 
Club, of Jersey City, noteworthy through- 
out the State as an influential Republican 
organization, and he attended the Palisade 
Methodist Episcopal Church. His person- 
al character, like his professional standing, 
was of the highest and most honorable 
type, and his public career was such as to 
reflect credit upon his State and party as 
well as upon himself. He married Agnes 
Stevens, daughter of Joel O. Stevens, once 
prominent in metropolitan public life as 
under-sheriff of New York, by whom he 
was survived, with five children, as fol- 
lows : Frederick, a student at Stevens In- 
stitute, Harold, Arthur, Ralph and Edith. 
He died at his home in Jersey City, April 
10, 1906, and his demise was widely and 
justly regarded in the light of a public loss. 



GEORGE W. TAYLOR 

NEWARK 



GEORGE W. TAYLOR, for many 
years identified with the manufactur- 
ing interests of the City of Newark, and 
one of Newark's most worthy and useful 
citizens, was born in Poughkeepsie, New 
York, September 28, 1832. He is the son 
of James B. and Grace J. (Gorum) Taylor. 
His parents removed to Michigan in 1839 
and remained in that state until 1841 when 
they returned to the East, settling first in 
the City of New York and afterwards in 
Newark, New Jersey, in 1848. The paternal 
grandparents of Mr. Taylor were Abram 
and Mary (Bibby) Taylor. Abram Taylor 
was a professor and teacher of music, as 
was also his son James B. Taylor, the father 
of the subject of this sketch. In their re- 
ligious proclivities the family were for 
many generations and are still Episco- 
palians. The maternal grandparents of Mr. 



Taylor were George and Grace (Smith) 
Gorum who came from Connecticut at an 
early period and settled in the City of New 
York. George Gorum was identified with 
mercantile business interests, being particu- 
larly known as a prominent dealer in boots 
and shoes. 

George W. Taylor received his early edu- 
cation in the public schools of New York 
City, and subsequently pursued his studies 
in the Academy of Middletown Point, New 
Jersey. Coming to Newark in 1848 he en- 
tered the employ of Smith & Wright, where 
he learned the trade of riding saddlery. 
After serving his time he became assistant- 
foreman of the factory. In 1867 he took 
complete charge of the factory of E. Van 
Antwerp & Co. engaged in the same busi- 
ness and for the past twenty-two years be- 
ginning in 1887 he has been engaged with 





^^ 




(f 



BIOGRAPHICAL CYCLOPEDIA 



203 



the Peters & Calhoun Company and their 
successors. The Peters Harness & Saddlery 
Company, having had charge of tiie esti- 
mating department of this concern. 

In politics, Mr. Taylor has always been 
a staunch Republican, having cast his first 
presidential vote for John C. Fremont, and 
is a charter member of the Lincoln Club. 
For some time he served in the volunteer 
fire department. He was a member of the 
National Guard of the State of New Jersey 
for twenty-seven years, having attained to 
the rank of Captain of Company I in the 
Second Regiment. For three years he was 



factory inspector of the Essex County Dis- 
trict. He was elected a member of the 
Board of Aldermen from the Eleventh 
Ward of Newark in 1908. He was Chair- 
man of the Committee on Elections, Cele- 
bration of the One Hundredth Anniversary 
of .Abraham Lincoln's Birth and a member 
of the Committees on Alms House, Market 
and Outing. He married Mary Elizabeth 
Young, daughter of Aaron Young and has 
four children, Gertrude; who married 
Thomas T. W. Muchmore; Mary Y. ; 
George B., and Florence. 



WILLIAM G. BUMSTED 

JERSEY CITY 



WILLIAM G. BUMSTED, prominent 
alike as lawyer, real estate operator 
and man of affairs, was born in Jersey 
City, New Jersey, December 23, 1855. He 
was the son of William H. Bumsted and 
Martha Arbuckle, and his ancestors, on 
both sides, lived in Hudson county for sev- 
eral generations and ranked among the rep- 
resentative New Jersey families of that 
section. His grandparents on the paternal 
side, William and Mary Bumsted, were 
both natives of England, who settled in 
Hudson county in 1833. William H. Bum- 
sted died in September, 1874, and was sur- 
vived by his widow. 

William George Bumsted received his 
rudimentary education in Public School 
No. 14, Hasbrouck Institute, then located 
in Lower Grand street, Jersey City. He 
was afterward a student at Phillips Acad- 
emy, Andover, Massachusetts, from which 
institution he was graduated in 1875. '^^ 
then entered Yale L'niversity but on ac- 
count of the death of his father and the 
necessity of looking after his mother's af- 
fairs, he was unable to complete his studies 
there. Returning home, he took up the 
study of law in the office of William Brink- 



erhofF, then in the First National Bank 
Building, where he became associated with 
William H. Corbin, William D. Edwards, 
John S. Mabon and Frederick S. Fram- 
bach, forming close professional and per- 
sonal friendships that were never subse- 
quently broken. Mr. Bumsted was admit- 
ted to the bar of New Jersey in 1879 and 
immediately established himself in practice 
in his native city. After building up an ex- 
cellent office and real estate clientage, and 
acquiring an enviable repute, he became a 
member of the firm of \\'allis, Edwards & 
Bumsted in 1888, returning to the First 
National Bank Building, in which he has 
since remained. 

In 1902, on the dissolution of the firm 
through the retirement of Hamilton Wallis 
from active life and the desire of William 
D. Edwards to devote himself to litigated 
practice, Mr. Bumsted decided to jiractice 
again by himself and thus be enabled to 
devote more time to his ever increasing 
personal afl^airs. As a lawyer, he has not 
sought the forensic or litigating side. He 
has preferred the work of advising busi- 
ness men and corporations in the con- 
duct of their business and finances. 



204 



BIOGRAPHICAL CYCLOPEDIA 



He is, primarily, a business man in 
tlie broadest sense of that term, who 
happens to be a lawyer as well. He 
has become a large operator in real es- 
tate in Jersey City and on Long Island, and 
has always had faith in the future of his 
own city. From 1880 to 1895 he was suc- 
cessfully engaged in promoting building 
operations in various parts of Hudson 
county through a number of builders. Ow- 
ing to unceasing demands upon his time, he 
has been forced of late years to decline 
such work. Always a believer in the fu- 
ture development of the Hackensack river 
water front, he has been for many years 
the largest private owner of land in the 
county on that stream. Mr. Bumsted is 
one of the charter members and original 
directors of the New Jersey Title Guaran- 
tee and Trust Company, serving for many 
years as chairman of its Finance Commit- 
tee in which capacity his unequaled know- 
ledge of realty values has been of the great- 
est service to the company. He is also a 
director in the Colonial Life Insurance 
Company, the Provident Institution for 
Savings, the Joseph Dixon Crucible Com- 
pany, and the Pavonia Trust Company. He 
has made it a rule of his business career 
never to allow his name to be used as a 
director or trustee of any institution with- 



out giving it the full time necessary to thor- 
oughly understand its aflfairs, a policy that 
he even carries into charitable undertak- 
ings, such as Christ Hospital, with which 
he is connected. Since 1886 he has been a 
director and part owner of the Raritan 
River Railroad Company, which runs from 
South Amboy to New Brunswick, through 
the rich clay and brick districts of Middle- 
sex county. Since the death of his old 
friend and associate in many enterprises, 
Frank H. Earle, he has assumed the presi- 
dency of the railroad company and is fill- 
ing the office with the thoroughness for 
which he is noted. In his younger days 
Mr. Bumsted was quite an athlete and ex- 
ceedingly fond of outdoor sports, and now, 
in middle life, he is vigorous, active and 
strong. As a young man he served a term 
of enlistment in the Seventh Regiment of 
New York, National Guard of the State. 
In 1885 he married Minnie G. Gale, 
daughter of Diedrich and Julia Gale, of 
New York City. There has been no issue. 
Politically, Mr. Bumsted is a Republican 
but he has never held public office, having 
no ambitions in that direction. He is justly 
regarded in Jersey City, where he makes 
his home, as one of the leading, most rep- 
resentative and public spirited citizens of 
that place. 



JOHN FRANCIS CAHILL 

NEWARK 



JOHN FRANCIS CAHILL, who stands 
as a model type of the American self- 
made man and who has attained notable 
distinction, entirely through his own ef- 
forts, as an acknowledged expert in corpor- 
ation and real estate law, was born in 
Newark, New Jersey, May 22, 1866. He 
is the son of John J. Cahill and Annie 
King, and iS descended from old and re- 
spected ancestry through both parents. He 
received his education in the public schools 



of his native city, and even as a boy gave 
evidences of that strong mentality which 
has characterized his professional work. 
Having decided upon the law as his work 
in life, he took up its study and was ad- 
mitted to the bar of New Jersey as an at- 
torney in November, 1896, being made a 
counselor two years later, in 1898. After 
his admission to the bar, he immediately es- 
tablished himself in practice at Newark and 
was not long in gaining botli repute and 



BIOGRAPHICAL CYCLOPEDIA 



205 



support. At this time he enjoys an en- 
tended and lucrative practice tliat covers 
the Eastern States, in which section he is 
widely and favorably known as an author- 
ity on the subject of real estate and cor- 
poration law, of which branches of his pro- 
fession he had made a close study, becom- 
ing a recognized expert in the examination 
of titles and ranking pre-eminent in that 
line. His ability is unquestioned and of a 
high order, and he owes what success he 
has achieved in law to his own earnestness 
and natural taelnts. He has been an untiring 
worker, and he devotes himself to the in- 
terests of his clients with a zeal and fidelit)' 
that are most marked. Mr. Cahill has been 
prominently and successfully identified 
with considerable litigation of more than 
ordinar}- moment, and in no case has he 
failed to acquit himself with signal credit. 
A member of the Democratic party in 
his political principles and affiliations, he 
has figured conspicuously in public life as 
an advocate of that organization's cause 
but he has never been a seeker for place 
and has never occupied official position. 
He is president of the Oritani Oub, a lead- 
ing popular organization with a member- 



ship of more than three hundred and fifty, 
in which body he exercises a potent influ- 
ence, and he holds membership also in the 
Joseph Hensler Association, of Newark, 
and in the Letter Carriers' Association, 
Branch No. 38, of New Jersey. He be- 
longs, also, to Newark Lodge No. 21, 
Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks. 
Personally, Mr. Cahill is a man of fine 
physique, polished in manner and thor- 
oughly refined, with all the finer qualities 
of a perfect gentleman ever in evidence, 
and he numbers his friends by the legion. 
He is a representative citizen of his city, 
and he is public spirited, taking an active 
part in every movement that tends to pro- 
mote the general welfare of the communitj' 
at large. His suite of offices at No. 800 
Broad street, Newark, are the typical work- 
shop of a busy lawyer and indicate more 
clearly than mere words could do the en- 
viable place that Mr. Cahill has won for 
himself in his own field of effort. Mr. 
Cahill was married to Florence E. Wood- 
ruflF, by whom he has had four children, 
namely, June, Carlisle, Balse and Flor- 
ence F. 



WILLIAM JOSEPH KEARNS 

NEWARK 



WILLIAM JOSEPH KEARNS, who 
has achieved enviable distinction and 
marked success as a member of the Essex 
County bar, was bom in Newark. New 
Jersey, August 12, 1864. He is the son of 
\N'illiam J. Keams and Elizabeth Keogan. 
and traces his descent through both father 
and mother from old and respected an- 
cestral stock. He received his education 
in his native cit}-. under the direction of the 
Brothers of the Christian Schools, in St. 
Patrick's Cathedral School and St. Bene- 
dict's College, later becoming a student 
in the Law Department of the Univer- 



sity of the City of New York, from 
which latter institution he received the de- 
gree of Bachelor of Laws on May 26, 1892. 
He read law in Newark in the offices of 
W. J. Knight and Thomas J. Lintott, and 
was admitted to the bar of New Jersey as 
an attorney in June. 1887, becoming a coun- 
selor-at-law in February, 1892. He was 
made Master in Chancery, February 14, 
1888, and is a New Jersey Supreme Court 
Commissioner. 

Mr. Kearns began his professional ca- 
reer in Januan,', 1883, in Newark, as a law 
stenographer, in which line of endeavor he 



2o6 



BIOGRAPHICAL CYCLOPEDIA 



speedily acquired recognition as an expert. 
As a lawyer he has attained high standing 
and his abilities are unquestioned. He has 
figured with notable credit in a number of 
important cases, handling his clients' inter- 
ests with skill and effectiveness, and ac- 
quitting himself in every instance in such 
manner as to add materially to his repute 
and standing at the bar. He is counsel for 
many leading fimis and corporations in his 
section, and he has made a name as a clear- 
sighted, clever practitioner whose judg- 
rhent is sound and whose perception of law 
is thorough and accurate. He has built up 
a large and influential clientage, his services 
being widely sought by those seeking ex- 
pert legal advice and no member of the Es- 
sex County bar possesses to a greater de- 
gree the respect and confidence of his 
clients. 

Mr. Kearns is a Democrat in his politi- 
cal principles and he has always taken an 
active part in the campaign work of his 
party, rendering valuable service to the or- 
ganization. It was in recognition of this 
fact that he was made the nominee of his 
party for Assembly from his district, being 
elected thereto and serving in the Legisla- 
ture of the State in 1893 with noteworthy 
distinction, his public record being of a 
type that added fresh prestige to his repute. 
While in that body, he served on some of 
the most important committees and was 



instrumental in the passage of considerable 
legislation of a character essential to the 
public interests, proving a true advocate of 
the general welfare and at all times cham- 
pioning the best measures introduced in be- 
half of the people of the State. Mr. Kearns 
is a Roman Catholic in his religious faith 
and is prominent and influential as a mem- 
ber of the Knights of Columbus, of which 
order he is a Past Grand Knight and Dis- 
trict Deputy, being popular in the body as 
one of its ruling spirits. Personally, he is 
a gentleman of high culture and marked 
mental attainments. He is now attorney 
to the Roman Catholic Diocese of New- 
ark, and has been personal counsel to the 
Right Reverend John J. O'Connor, the 
Bishop of the Diocese, since his elevation to 
the episcopacy. He is also counsel to the 
sheriff of Essex County. 

He was married February 17, 1890, 
at the Church of the Holy Cross, 
Harrison, New Jersey, to Katharine 
L. D. Tighe, daughter oi Patrick 
and Teresa Tighe, of that place, his wife 
being a sister of the Reverend Father John 
J. Tighe, a noted pulpit orator of excep- 
tional eloquence and a power in the ad- 
vancement of church interests. To this 
union were born Agatha T. D., John P. 
W., Anthony P. W., Mary Rose, Agnes 
Annunziata, and Anna G. B. 



THEODORE GEORGE GIBSON 

NEWARK 



AN analysis of the life record of Theo- 
dore George Gibson shows that enter- 
prise, careful management, keen discrimina- 
tion and unflagging industry, constitute the 
principal elements in the succes which 
crowned his efforts. His business enter- 
prise constituted an important feature in in- 
dustrial activity in Newark. Mr. Gibson was 
born May 27, 1856, at Ledgewood, Morris 



County, New Jersey, being descended from 
one of the pioneer families of that neighbor- 
hood. His father George Gibson died at 
the age of thirty-five years at Ledgewood, 
New Jersey. His mother, Phebe (Tal- 
madge) Gibson, survived until sixty-eight 
years of age, her home during the last years 
of her life, being with her son, the subject 
of this sketch. 




Theodore G. Gibson 



BIOGRAPHICAL CYCLOPEDIA 



207 



Mr. Gibson became a resident of New- 
ark, in 1872, having acquired his education 
in the pubUc schools of New York, where 
he resided for a time, and the Dover Acad- 
emy, supplementing the whole by attend- 
ance at the Bryant & Stratton P.usiness Col- 
lege of Newark. On completing his educa- 
tion, he looked about for a trade, for in 
those days a boy was taught to make him- 
self a thorough master of some useful art. 
Determining to become a builder, he learned 
the carpenter trade, and a few years later 
engaged in contracting and building on his 
own account and from a small beginning, 
his well directed labors, his fidelity to the 
terms of a contract, and his observance of 
the ethics of trade relations, he gained the 
confidence of all with whom he had busi- 
ness relations, and acquired a substantial 
competence. 

Mr. Gibson married October 15, 1884, 
Ida A. Wells, of Good Ground, Long Is- 
land. The children of this union are Leon 
\V., a student of Columbia L^niversity, 
Anita T., attending the Blairstown Acad- 
emy, and Mabel R. Mrs. Gibson's parents 
were Richard Lewis and Clarissa (Foster) 
Wells, of Good Ground, Long Island. Mrs. 
Gibson is of English origin, on the paternal 
side, and traces her descent on the ma- 
ternal side to distinguished American an- 
cestry, the progenitor being Christopher 
Foster, who settled in Boston, Massachu- 
setts, in 1635 ; from him the line of descent 



is Daniel, Jonas, Wakeman, and Maltby, 
the grandfather of Mrs. Gibson. The Fos- 
ter family has figured conspicuously and 
with notable honor in the annals of New 
England and Long Island. 

Mr. Gibson not only achieved success in 
the line of contracting and building, but be- 
came famous as an appraiser. His long 
and varied experience in construction work, 
aided his natural gifts in quickly and ac- 
curately estimating values, and his services 
were brought into requisition from all parts 
of the country, as appraiser and fire insur- 
ance adjuster, his last journey in this capac- 
ity being to British Columbia. Socially, Mr. 
Gibson was a member of Kane Lodge No. 
55, Free and Accepted Masons, Harmony 
Chapter, Damascus Commander)', Knights 
Templar No. 5, and Salaam Temple of the 
Mystic Shrine. He also belonged to Cor- 
inthian Council No. 644, of the Royal Ar- 
canum, the Board of Trade, and the 
Builders and Traders' Exchange, a stock- 
holder in the Builders and Treaders' Ex- 
change Building Company, and a member 
of the Master Carpenters Association. He 
was also a member of the First Baptist 
Church, of Newark. Personally, he was 
a gentleman of striking individuality, the 
soul of kindness and courtesy, always con- 
siderate of others, and generous. He lived 
an upright life and was devoted to his home 
and family. His death occurred December 
28, 1908. 



MUNGO J. CURRTE 

JERSEY CITY 



MI XGO J. CURRIE. a member of the 
New Jersey bar. was born January 
24. 1857, in Greenville, now a part of Jer- 
sey City, New Jersey, where he still resides 
and is esteemed as a leading and representa- 
tive citizen. He is a son of James and El- 
len Currie, and is descended on both sides 
from old and respected Scottish ancestry. 



His father, who was born in 1800 and died 
in 1870, was a son of William Currie and 
a grandson of Mungo Currie, while his 
mother was a daughter of Robert Currie 
and a granddaughter of John Currie, his 
grandparents being natives of Scotland. 

It was in Scotland that Mr. Currie re- 
ceived part of his education, being a stu- 



208 



BIOGRAPHICAL CYCLOPEDIA 



dent in Hamilton Academy of Hamilton, 
Lanarkshire, from 1869 to 1872 and after- 
ward continuing his studies in Elizabeth, in 
Union County, New Jersey, from 1873 to 
1875. Entering Princeton University, he 
was graduated from that institution in the 
class of 1879 and, having decided upon the 
law as his future profession, he began its 
study in the office of the Hon. Henry S. 
White, formerly United States Attorney 
for the District of New Jersey. He was 
admitted to the bar of New Jersey as an 
attorney in 1882. Immediately after his 
admission, he established himself in general 
practice in Jersey City, where, with the 
exception of about two years, he has since 
carried on his profession with success. He 
has displayed ability at the bar, and shown 



in his cases a ready grasp of legal principles 
and broad and accurate knowledge of the 
law. He has figured conspicuously and 
with honor in numerous suits in which he 
represented landlords in railroad condem- 
nation actions and in litigation connected 
with street improvements in cities. 

As a citizen Mr. Currie is public spirited 
and is ever found in co-operation with any 
movement calculated to benefit the com- 
munity or promote the general welfare. 
Personally, he is a gentleman of culture. He 
is a member of the Princeton Club of New 
York City and holds membership in the 
University Club of Hudson County, New 
Jersey, and :be Jersey City Board of Trade. 
He is not married. 



JOHN FAIRFIELD DRYDEN 

NEWARK 



FOREMOST among the men of New 
Jersey, past or present, stands John F. 
Dryden, President of the Prudential Insur- 
ance Company of America, and United 
States Senator from 1902 to 1907. Mr. 
Dryden was born on a farm, near Farming- 
ton, Maine, August 7, 1839, the son of John 
and Elizabeth B. Dryden, of old New Eng- 
land ancestry. He was studious in his 
youth and inclined to intellectual pursuits, 
taking every advantage of study and in- 
quiry to prepare himself for entrance into 
Yale College, at the age of about twenty- 
one, in 1861. Never robust in health, he 
broke down before graduation, but in honor 
of his subsequent achievements, the univer- 
sity conferred upon him both the Bachelor 
and Master degrees, and his name was en- 
tered in the Tri-Centennial Catalogue as 
one of the graduates of the Class of 1865. 
After leaving college he became interest- 
ed in life insurance, in its particular appli- 
cation to the practical solution of the econ- 
omic problems of the poor. Some ten years 



previous a great English company, The 
Prudential Assurance Company of London, 
had commenced the writing of so-called In- 
dustrial Insurance, or life insurance for 
wage-earners on the weekly payment plan, 
and the progress which had been achieved, 
in the face of serious difficulties, seemed 
most promising for the future. Consider- 
able publicity had been given to Parliamen- 
tary and other discussions on the subject 
and the same had also been referred to, by 
Mr. Elizur Wright, in the Annual Reports 
of the Massachusetts Insurance Depart- 
ment. 

Devoting all his spare time to the study 
of the available information, Mr. Dryden 
decided, after mature consideration, to 
henceforth devote all of his energy and 
ability to the establishment of a similar sys- 
tem of life insurance in the United States. 
Gradually perfecting his plan, he finally set- 
tled in Newark, New Jersey, in 1873, pro- 
vided with letters of introduction to men of 
aflfairs and large employers of labor, who 



BIOGRAPHICAL CYCLOPEDIA 



209 



were in a position to extend to him the best 
practical assistance in the establishment of 
an institution similar to the British Pruden- 
tial, but modified to meet the needs of the 
American people. The financial disturbances 
of the period, the panic and long-continued 
business depression, including the failure of 
many banks and insurance companies, nat- 
urally proved a serious disadvantage at the 
outset. Undaunted, however, by the diffi- 
culties which confronted him, Mr. Dryden 
went ahead and successfully enlisted the 
hearty co-operation of a small group of 
able men, and among these a young practic- 
ing physician, Dr. Leslie D. Ward, and Mr. 
N'oah F. Blanchard, a leading leather man- 
ufacturer. 

After obtaining a charter from the New 
Jersey Legislature, the beginning was made, 
in the organization of "The Widows' and 
Orphans' Friendly Society", the name of 
which, in 1875, was changed to "The Pru- 
dential Friendly Society". The original 
mtent was to establish a workingmen's ben- 
efit institution, comprehending in its scope 
all of the most important contingencies af- 
fecting wage-earners' lives, that is, financial 
aid in the event of sickness, accident, or 
death, and an annuity in old age. Subse- 
quent experience proved that the time had 
not come for the practical realization of so 
ambitious an undertaking, and when, in 
1878, the name of the Prudential Friendly 
Society was changed to the "Prudential In- 
surance Company of America", the institu- 
tion limited itself to the granting of insur- 
ance of sums payable at death. From the 
beginning, however, the undertaking had 
been strictly limited to wage-earners' insur- 
ance, or Indu.strial Insurance on the weekly 
payment plan, with the premiums collected 
from the houses of the insured. For rea- 
sons inherent in the life and condition of 
those who earn weekly salaries, or wages, 
no other system of voluntary wage-earners' 
insurance had been successful, and it is 
doubtful whether a better plan could have 
been devised. The enormous success which 
has followed Mr. Dryden's eflFort, therefore, 



challenges the admiration of mankind. On 
December 31st, 1908, the Prudential alone 
had 7,258,704 Industrial policies in force, 
while the aggregate for all the American 
Industrial insurance companies combined 
was 19,087,675 policies, insuring $2,668,- 
919,696 of family protection. 

While Mr. Dryden's original plan had 
been to establish an insurance institution 
for the benefit of wage-earners only, it soon 
became api)arent that with increasing insur- 
ance education and the persistent teaching 
of systematic savings habits, the field of life 
insurance would be very much broadened, 
and as early as 1886 the Prudential com- 
menced the issue of Ordinary policies in 
amounts of one thousand dollars and over, 
with premiums payable quarterly, and at 
longer intervals. Out of this comparative- 
ly recent beginning a very large and rapidly 
growing Ordinary business has, in course 
of time, developed, and on December 31st, 
1908, the company had 473,035 Ordinary 
policies in force, for $543,493,909 of in- 
surance protection. A large amount of 
this insurance is secured by Industrial 
agents and thus the benefits of every form 
of safe and sound life insurance are 
brought home to the mass of the people, 
who are most in need thereof. By combin- 
ing the two forms of insurance tn one great 
institution. Mr. Dryden has secured for the 
Prudential the foremost position among the 
life insurance companies of the world and 
to himself enduring fame as the master 
mind which the business of insurance has 
produced in the United States. 

When the Prudential was first organized, 
Mr. Dryden was elected Secretary, but as 
early as 1881, after the death of the Presi- 
dent. Mr. Noah F. Blanchard, he was 
unanimously elected to that position, which 
he has continuously held to the present 
time. While his business life has been full 
of labor in behalf of the cause with which 
he has been so intimately connected, Mr. 
Dryden has also been active in the larger 
field of public life, performing many and 
varied responsible duties. In appreciation 



2IO 



BIOGRAPHICAL CYCLOPEDIA 



of his distinguished service, he was elected 
a Presidential Elector in 1896 and 1900 and 
a United States Senator on January 29th, 
1902. 

Senator Dryden's term expired March 4, 
1907. He was the choice of the voters, as a 
result of the primaries, for re-election. His 
health breaking down during the deadlock, 
made possible and inviting by a narrow 
Republican majority on joint ballot, he 
yielded to the advice of his physicians and 
family and withdrew in favor of his suc- 
cessor. 

During his career in the Senate Mr. Dry- 
den participated in many important matters 
as a member of various committees, but his 
most important achievement was his speech 
on the Panama Canal, during the most criti- 
cal stage of that important measure. At a 
time when sentiment was about equally di- 
vided in favor of the type of canal which 
should be adopted, Mr. Dryden, after ma- 
ture consideration, came out in favor of the 
lock project, and by his vote, and perhaps 
by that vote alone, committed the nation to 
the most feasible and economical form of 
canal construction. If, as Senator, he had 
left, in the annals of Congress, no other 
evidence of his capacity for undaunted 
leadership, his address on the Panama 
Canal will always take rank as one of the 
most able and thoroughly considered public 
papers contributed to the proceedings of 
the Upper House of the National Legisla- 
ture. In the words of former Governor 
Stokes of New Jersey, "Mr. Dryden's 
speech on the Panama Canal was a master 
contribution to the literature of that sub- 
ject and probably decided the policy of 
Congress on that question." 

Aside from the speech on the Panama 
Canal, Mr. Dryden, in the midst of an ex- 
tremely busy life, has from time to time 
contributed suggestive and well-considered 
papers and addresses on life insurance and 
other subjects, re-printed under that title in 
book form, to give permanency to his views 
on principles and measures vitally affecting 
the interests of the business of insurance. 



The volume of collected papers and ad- 
dresses contains chapters on. The Inception 
and Early Problems of Industrial Insur- 
ance, The First Quarter Century of Indus- 
trial Insurance in the United States, The 
Social Economy of Industrial Insurance, 
The Practice of Industrial Insurance, Life 
Insurance as a Career, The Taxation of 
Life Insurance, The Regulation of Insur- 
ance by Congress, The Commercial Aspects 
of Federal Regulation of Insurance, and 
finally. The American Type of Isthmian 
Canal, and A Brief Address on Abraham 
Lincoln and Alexander Hamilton. The 
mere titles of these papers and addresses 
suggest the broad field of questions and 
problems with which Mr. Dryden concern- 
ed himself during the few leisure hours of 
an active life, and they will serve for all 
time as a most useful source of informa- 
tion, suggestion and advice, to those who, 
by their own efforts, aim to advance the 
cause of sound life insurance in America. 

The private life of Mr. Dryden is a most 
happy one and of quiet, dignified simplicity. 
Out of his marriage, in 1864, to Miss 
Cynthia Fairchild, survive two children, 
Mr. Forrest F. Dryden, 2nd Vice Presi- 
dent of the Prudential, and Susie Dryden, 
who married Colonel Anthony R. Kuser, 
of Trenton, New Jersey. Mr. Forrest F. 
Dryden has three children, John F. Dryden, 
2nd, Dorothy Dryden, and Elizabeth But- 
terfield Dryden, and Mrs. Kuser has one 
child, John Dryden Kuser. 

]\Ir. Dryden maintains a town house in 
Newark, a beautiful summer residence in 
Bernardsville, and for some years past a 
winter residence in Washington. His art 
collection in Newark ranks as one of the 
most carefully selected in the State, includ- 
ing a number of very valuable paintings by 
modern masters. Mr. Dryden is a member 
of many clubs, including the l^Tnion League 
Club, New York Yacht Club, The Railroad 
Club, Automobile Qub of America, Metro- 
politan Club of Washington, Blooming 
Grove Hunting and Fishing Club, Essex 
Club, Essex County Country Club, and 




/Uyry<^^ MJ^^^ 



BIOGRAPHICAL CYCLOPEDIA 



211 



Automobile and Motor Club of New Jersey. 

Of his life and work it has been said 
that it represents "the best that is in 
our city" and that he and his associates in 
the Prudential "have done more for New- 
ark in various ways than the public will 
ever know." The Prudential has, in truth, 
been of vast benefit to the people of the 
State of New Jersey, not only through the 
large number of people immediately em- 
])loyed in the company's group of mammoth 
office buildings, and through the direct 
contribution in taxes to the revenues of the 
State, but in many other important direc- 
tions. The Prudential, with its allied finan- 
cial institutions, the Fidelity Trust Com- 
f)any and the Union National Bank, forms 
a center of conservatism in State and Na- 
tional affairs, the influence of which ex- 
tends to the country at large. It would be 
difficult indeed to conceive to-day of the 
State of New Jersey and the City of New- 
ark without the Prudential and without a 
question of doubt the progress which has 
been made by the State and the city would 
not have been what it has been if the Pru- 
dential had not been established in the city 
of Newark in 1875. 

Of a life so full of worth and work, and 
one which has been so much of credit to 
the man who has lived it, it is most fitting 



to quote the following beautiful tribute, 
written in honor of the seventieth anniver- 
sary of the birth of Mr. Dryden, in the Ex- 
positor, a Newark publication : 

"John F. Dryden, at seventy, is a re- 
markable illustration of greatness arising 
out of a long and arduous, but always de- 
termined, struggle for success in a new and 
venturesome field of human endeavor. He 
succeeded because he possessed traits and 
characteristics which have always been a 
prerequisite to greatness, above all remark- 
able energ)' and conscientious application 
to the details of his daily life, and absolute 
intellectual honesty. Those who have 
known him best through the many years of 
his active life will agree that to him may 
truly be applied the beautiful words of 
.Marcus .Xurelius, 'If any man can convince 
me and bring home to me the fact that I do 
not think or act aright, gladly will I change ; 
for I search after truth, by which man 
never yet was harmed.' 

More than this could be said in praise of 
no man. nor of his work and the aims and 
ideals behind the work, as the main pur- 
jiose of a life. To have had faith in a new 
idea is not rare, for the world is full of 
day-dreamers, who hopelessly struggle 
against overwhelming odds. But to have 
had an abiding faith in an almost hopeless 
aim and effort and to have carried the idea 
through the years, against all odds, to a 
successful termination, is given to few men, 
and of these few John F. Dryden ranks 
foremost as a truly great man of his time." 



WELLSWORTH KNIGHT CLYNES 

NEWARK 



WK L L S W O R T H K \ I G H T 
CLYNES, one of the most success- 
fid contractors of New Jersey, was Ixjrn in 
Jersey City, New Jersey, May 4, 1873, 
much of his boyhood being spent in Mont- 
clair. New Jersey. His father was captain 
Thomas Henry Clynes, and his mother 
Jane (Knight) Qynes. His father was ac- 
tive and prominent in military affairs and 
served in the Me.xican War and the Civil 



War. He was Captain of Company C 
of the Seventy-second New York National 
Guards. His ability as a military com- 
mander was specially recognized by Gen- 
eral Winfield Scott, who personally pre- 
sented him with a gold mcflal for gallantry 
in the .Mexican War, and another medal 
was presented to him at the opening of the 
Civil War. for excellence in discipline and 
for general efficiency. In civil life, he was 



212 



BIOGRAPHICAL CYCLOPEDIA 



a successful contractor and died August lo, 
1886. 

The mother of Wellsworth Knight 
Clynes and the wife of Thomas Henry 
Clynes — Jane Knight, a daughter of Wil- 
Ham and Sarah (Wellsworth) Knight, and 
a granddaughter of Godfrey Knight and 
Sarah Goodhall, of Leeds, England, — 
was a most devoted wife and mother and 
beloved by all who knew her. She died Oc- 
tober 31, 1901. An uncle of Jane Knight, 
was Godfrey Knight, who was Lord Mayor 
of Scarborough, England. William Knight, 
the father of Jane Knight, was celebrated 
as the world's champion in quoit throwing 
which was the universal gentleman's game 
of his time. William Wellsworth and 
Thomas W. Wellsworth, uncles of Jane 
Knight, were extensive government con- 
tractors, and built the large fort on Gov- 
ernor's Island, executed other government 
contracts and died during the cholera epi- 
demic in New York. Thomas Clynes, the 
paternal grandfather of the subject of this 
sketch, was also a noted contractor. 

Wellsworth Knight Clynes was educated 
in the public schools of Jersey City, and in 
Trinity school, completing his education in 
the last named institution in 1891. At once, 
upon leaving school, he engaged in the con- 
tracting business following in the footsteps 



of his father and grandfather. Subsequent- 
ly in 1900, he entered upon railroad con- 
struction work in which he has been contin- 
ually engaged until the present time in 1909, 
particularly in the South and West. Among 
his most notable construction achievements 
have been that upon the Indiana and West- 
ern Railroad, The Knoxville, Lafollette and 
Jellico Railroad, the Louisville and Nash- 
ville system, and the New Jersey Central 
Railroads and others. He is also well- 
known as a successful operator in real es- 
tate. For two years in the prosecution of 
his railroad contracts, he lived among the 
mountaineers in log cabins on the Kentucky 
and Tennessee border. Few men are better 
acquainted with the habits and peculiarities 
of the people of that section of the South. 
His interest in them was specially manifest- 
ed in his erecting for the benefit of the peo- 
ple among whom he had lived, the Log 
Cabin Library in the mountain region of 
Kentucky and Tennessee. 

Mr. Clynes is not a member of any social 
organizations. His interests are entirely in 
his business and his home, and to those he is 
unreservedly devoted. He married Char- 
lotte Riker Haywood, daughter of George 
W. and Charlotte I. Haywood, August 8, 
1908, and a daughter, Jane Isobel, was 
born October 29, 1909. 



J. ARTHUR MANDEVILLE 

NEWARK 



FIRST of the Mandeville family in 
America was Giles Jansen de Mande- 
ville, who came to America in the ship 
"Faith" in 1649. H e was a citizen of 
Rouen, France, and had fled from that city 
to escape religious prosecution and settled 
in Guilderland. There he married Elsie 
Hendricks in 1640. Beginning with this 
Giles Jansen de Mandeville the line of de- 
scent to the subject of this sketch, is as fol- 
lows: Giles Jansen (i); Hendrick (2) ; 



Giles M. (3); Abraham (4); Yellis M. 
(5) ; James C. (6) ; Frederick B. (7), and 
J. Arthur (8). 

The parents of J. Arthur Mandeville 
were the late Doctor Frederick Bailie Man- 
deville and his wife Sarah Teel. Frederick 
Bailie Mandeville who practiced medicine 
in Newark for more than forty years, was 
the son of James Camp and Caroline (Van 
Vilsor) Mandeville. He was born in New- 
ark, August 16, 1840, and died in Newark, 





^a^U^JLMC-A^^-^^''^^^- 



BIOGRAPHICAL CYCLOPEDIA 



213 



April 26, 1909. After completing his eariy 
studies in the Newark Academy, lie became 
a student in Rutgers College. In his so- 
phomore year at this institution he decided 
upon a mercantile career and entered tiic 
employ of S. R. W. Heath & Co. Subse- 
quently he studied in the New York Home- 
opathic Medical College and was graduated 
from that institution in 1861. Then he en- 
tered the New York Medical College and 
was graduated therefrom in 1863. After 
receiving his degree, he entered the medi- 
cal department of the United States service 
and was attached to the Ward United 
States Hospital in Newark. It was not 
long before he was promoted to be acting 
assistant surgeon and became associated 
with the celebrated Doctor Edward Jane- 
way. 

Leaving public service. Doctor Mande- 
villc became associated with Doctor 
Charles R. Fish, of Newark, and began 
there his long and active professional ca- 
reer. For about two years he was located 
on Washington street and then removed to 
Broad street where his office remained for 
more than forty years, until it became one 
of the recognized land-marks of the city. 
In 1869 the chair of diseases of children 
and Hygiene in the New York Homeo- 
pathic College was tendered to him but was 
declined. He however, accepted an honor- 
ary appointment and lectured at that insti- 
tution for a year. 

For many years. Doctor Mandevillc took 
an active part in public affairs. As repre- 
sentative from the old Ninth Ward, he was 
elected a member of the Boarti of Educa- 
tion in 1872, and served for nine years. 
For seven years he served as chairman of 
the teachers' committee. He became a 
nicmljcr of the Board of Health in 1882, 
was twice president of the body and was 
its chief health officer for five years. He 
was one of the founders of the New Jer- 
sey State Homeopathic Society, and served 
two terms a<; president of the organization. 
He was a member of the New Jersey Medi- 
cal Club and of the American Institute, and 



a honorary member of the New York and 
Pennsylvania State Homeopathic societies. 
He was a contributor to various medical 
journals on current subjects of interest to 
the profession. He was one of the organizers 
of the Schuyler Electric Light Company, 
later merged into the United Electric Com- 
pany, now controlled by the Public Service 
Corporation, being its first vice-president 
and later its president. He was also an 
organizer of the United States Industrial 
Insurance Company, serving during a 
period of seven years as its medical direc- 
tor, vice-president, and president. He was 
a charter stockholder in the Prudential In- 
surance Company. 

In October, 1863. Doctor Mandeville 
married Sarah Tucker Teel, of New York 
City, daughter of George Teel, who wa.s 
for many years the head of the Methodist 
Rook Concern of New York. From that 
union there were four children, three sons 
and one daughter. The eldest son, Fred- 
crick A. Mandeville, was born in Newark. 
.•\ugust 16, 1864, was graduated from the 
Newark Academy, and from Rutgers Col- 
lege in 1887, and from the New York 
Homeopathic College and Hospital, and 
al.so received a certificate from Vienna, 
.Austria, in 1889. He is now a practicing 
physician in Newark. 

J. Arthur Mandeville, the youngest son 
of Doctor Frederick Bailie Mandeville was 
horn .September 18. 1872, in Newark. His 
early education was obtained in the New- 
ark .Academy and then he studied in 
Princeton College in the class of 1894. Tak- 
ing up the subject of law for his profes- 
sion, he studied in the New York Law 
School and was graduated from that insti- 
tution. Before he completed his studies in 
the law school, he had become a clerk and 
later a manager for the law firm of John- 
ston &■ Johnston, and there he acquired still 
more knowledge of law and a proficiency in 
handling legal affairs. Despite the promis- 
ing outlrvok in the legal profession, he be- 
came interested in insurance, and found 



214 



BIOGRAPHICAL CYCLOPEDIA 



tliat his inclination ran very strongly in that 
direction. Following this inclination, he 
connected himself with the United State In- 
dustrial Insurance Company, and his suc- 
cess therewith fully justified his primary 
judgment, for he worked himself up rapid- 
ly, until he became assistant-secretary of 
that company. 

Subsequently he was invited to become 
a member of the staff of the Metropolitan 
Life Insurance Company, as supervising 
manager for the states of Pennsylvania, 
Virginia and West Virginia. His succes- 
sion in this position attracted the attention 
of other insurance people and he became 
the New Jersey State Manager of the 



Equitable Life Assurance Society in which 
work he was associated in partnership with 
E. W. Gray. Although this position was 
wholly agreeable and his conduct of the po- 
sition was preeminently successful, he re- 
signed the place with his partner, in order 
to organize and promote the Commercial 
Casualty Insurance Company, which seem- 
ed to the two partners to offer wider oppor- 
tunities for the excercise of their abilities. 
Mr. Mandeville is also the junior member 
of the Gray-Mandeville Company, which 
does a general insurance business. In poli- 
tics he is a Republican, and his religious 
preference is shown by his membership in 
the First Presbyterian Church of Newark. 



FRANCIS A. GILE, M. D. 

BLOOMFIELD 



FRANCIS A. GILE, son of Alfred Au- 
gustus and Mary Lucinda (Kern) Gile, 
was born at Franklin Falls, New Hamp- 
shire, July 19, 1845. The family of Gile 
or Guild, as it is differently spelled, is of 
English and Scotch origin. The bearers 
of that name appear among the earliest 
settlers of the Massachusetts colony, of 
whom Samuel Guild, of Haverhill, was 
one, belonging to the history of that place 
as early as 1637, and being an ancestor of 
the subject of this sketch. The mother of 
Dr. Gile was a descendant of an old Dutch 
family, the Kerns, whose immediate ances- 
tors settled in Hamburg, Pennsylvania. 

The early education of Dr. Gile was re- 
ceived in the common schools of his na- 
tive State, after leaving which he became a 
pupil in the New Hampshire Conference 
Seminary, of Tilton, New Hampshire. The 
Civil War began while the youth was yet 
a schoolboy, and he left his education 
that he might enter the service of his coun- 
try. At the age of seventeen he became a 
member of the Sixteenth New Hampshire 
Volunteers, and served under General 



Banks in the Department of the Gulf. Dur- 
ing this term of service he took part in 
the following engagements and expedi- 
tions : The Red River expedition of 1863, 
and Port Hudson, in the same year ; Grand 
Gulf, Brasier City and Fort Burton, Butte 
La Rose, and the Atchafalaya River. Will- 
iam A. Gile, a brother of Dr. Gile, (after- 
wards a well known lawyer of Worcester, 
and a prominent member of the Massachu- 
setts Legislature,) was his companion in 
the army. 

At the close of the war the young man 
returned to those literary and scientific 
pursuits which had been interrupted by the 
call of patriotism. While the early bent 
of his mind may have been towards a pro- 
fessional life, there is little doubt that the 
experience of his years in the midst of 
suffering and death may have influenced 
him in the choice of the practice of medi- 
cine as a life work. To this end he en- 
tered the Homeopathic Medical College 
of New York and after graduation began 
practicing in that city. He continued later 
in the State of New Jersey in the town of 




Dr. F. A. Gile 




R. W. Hawkesworth 



BIOGR.\PHICAL CYCLOPEDIA 



215 



Orange, living there and in the adjoining 
town of Bloomficld for many years. His 
name was soon ])rominent among his pro- 
fessional brothers, and he was called upon 
to serve as President of the Xew Jersey 
State Homeopathic Medical Society, also 
being Treasurer of the same for several 
years. In 1886 he was elected Councilman, 
and in 1893 was made Coroner of Essex 
County, Xew Jersey. He was a life long 
Mason. 



He married, July 9, 1879, Annie Cattell, 
daughter of the Reverend Alexander Gil- 
more, whose record as a Qiaplain in the 
Regular Army for over twenty years, and 
an influential member of the Methodist 
Conference of New Jersey for over fifty 
years, made him a man of note in the his- 
tory of Methodism, and a power in that 
Church. The death of Dr. Gile occurred 
in Bloomfield, Oct. 12, 1908. 



ROBERT WRIGHT HAWKESWORTH 

EAST ORANGE 



TO say of a man that he possesses the 
confidence and esteem of his neighbors 
and fellows to such a degree that he is 
sought by them to discharge duties incum- 
bent on public offices in the communitj' in 
which he lives, is the highest tribute that 
may be paid him. Such a man was Robert 
Wright Mawkesworth, honored citizen of 
East Orange, noted lawyer and clubman of 
New York. He was born on September 
27, 1848, at Bridgeton, Barbadoes, West 
Indies and when he was eighteen years of 
age he came to the United States to study 
law. After spending a short time in New 
York city, he went to Macon, Georgia, and 
was admitted to the Bar of that State a few 
years later. Returning to New York after 
a time, he was admitted to the Bar there 
and began a career whicii was to last thirty 
years, a period in which he placed himself 
in the front rank of the legal profession in 
both city and state. 

Admitted to practice in the Supreme 
Court of New York, and senior member of 
the firm of Hawkeswortli & Kirtland, he 
was regarded as one of the keenest lawyers 
of the day and his counsel was sought in 
prominent anfl important legal contests. Ik- 
was a strong Republican but never accepted 
office, with the single exception of becom- 
ing trustee of the Carnegie Free Library 



in East Orange, which he held from the 
opening of the library in 1900 until the time 
of his death. When the Eighth District 
was newly formed in 1902, he was offered 
the Congressional nomination but declined 
because of the demands of his large prac- 
tice. He was a charter member of the Re- 
publican Club of East Orange, organized 
in 1888. In 1890 he was elected President 
of the club and served three years. When 
Governor Franklin Fort resigned Mr. 
Hawkeswortli was again elected President 
and served seven consecutive terms. 

He early took up his residence in East 
Oiange. On November 22, 1887, he mar- 
ried .Anna Myers Kirtland, a daught<?r of 
George Kirtland, and granddaugiitcr of M. 
O. Halsted, the first New Yorker to reside 
in the Oranges. Mr. Halsted was one of 
the princes of the mercantile world in the 
metropolis and when he came to East 
Orange to live he immediately began to 
benefit that comnninity in many ways. The 
beautiful old mansion which stands on 
Main street was built by him in 1840 and 
has always been the home of Mrs. Hawkes- 
wortli and her family. When the Dela- 
ware Lackawanna & Western Railroad 
built its lines through the town, he gave the 
ground and built at his own expense a 
depot. Not stopping with this, he employed 



2l6 



BIOGRAPHICAL CYCLOPEDIA 



a man as a watchman at the crossing, and 
continued to bear the expense of this for 
years. Halsted street is named for this 
benefactor, and he is remembered in many 
ways for his large heartedness and pubHc 
spirit. 

Mr. Hawkesworth was devoted to outdoor 
sports; riding, driving, golf and tennis. He 
was instrumental in establishing the Old 
Orange Athletic Club, formed in 1885, and 
was its first president. This club was the 
home of the representative amateur base- 
ball, football and tennis players of Essex 
county. He also took much interest and 
pleasure in one of the oldest organizations 
of its kind in this country, the Orange 
Lawn Tennis Club. He was a member of 
the Riding and Driving Club, the Orange 
Club, the Essex County Country Club, of 



which he was a governor for six years, and 
a member and founder of the Montrose 
Lawn Tennis Club. 

Besides being a member of the New 
York Bar Association, the American Bar 
Association and the Lawyers' Club of New 
York, he also belonged to the Union 
League and Republican Clubs of New 
York. He was also a member of the New 
England Society. He died very suddenly 
of apoplexy at his home, March 23, 1909. 
He was a brilliant and keen lawyer, a pol- 
ished and scholarly gentleman, a man of 
note, one whose loss is greatly felt in the 
business and social world, and whose place 
can never be filled at home. A widow and 
three children survived him : Eleanor, 
Margaret and Robert Wright Hawkes- 
worth, Jr. 



WILLIAM H. WILEY 

EAST ORANGE 



WILLIAM H. WILEY, son of the 
late John Wiley, of East Orange, 
was born in New York city in 1842. He 
was graduated from the College of the City 
of New York in the class of '61, known as 
the war class, and enlisted in the army at 
the age of nineteen. He was commissioned 
as First Lieutenant, was promoted to a 
Captaincy and was finally rewarded with the 
brevet rank of Major for gallant and meri- 
torious services. He had charge of a bat- 
tery on Morris Island in the bombardment 
of Fort Sumter, and for a time was in com- 
mand of Fort Wagner. After the war he 
entered the Troy Polytechnic Institute and 
was duly graduated therefrom. He has been 
assistant engineer of the Brooklyn Water 
Works and of the Croton Water Works, 
also of Riverside Park, in Chicago. He was 
also resident engineer of the Reading Rail- 
road for a time. He was engaged in mak- 
ing surveys in Pennsylvania for the New- 
hope and Philadelphia Railroad, afterward 



connected with the Bound Brook route and 
was superintendent of a mine in the Hock- 
ing Valley, Ohio, with headquarters in 
Zanesville. In 1875 he became a member 
of the publishing house of John Wiley & 
Sons, which is now composed of himself and 
his brother, Charles Wiley. 

Major Wiley is a member of the Ameri- 
can Society of Civil Engineers, a member 
and Treasurer of the American Society of 
Mechanical Engineers, and a member of 
the American Institute of Mining Engi- 
neers, the American Institute of Electrical 
Engineers, the Society for the Advance- 
ment of Science, the Metropolitan Museum 
of Arts, the Muncipal Arts Society, and the 
National Geographical Society. At one 
time he was vice-president of the Engi- 
neer's Club, of New York, and he is also a 
member of the Loyal Legion, the Army and 
Navy Club, the University Club, the Re- 
publican Oub and the Aldine Club, all of 
New York; the Essex County Country 



BIOGRAPHICAL CYCLOPEDIA 



217 



Club of Orange, and the Republican Club 
of East Orange. He was long active in 
East Orange affairs, and in 1886, 1887 and 
1888 was a member of the Township Com- 
mittee, serving as chairman part of the 
time. His advice and experience were most 
valuable in connection with the introduc- 
tion of sewerage, that great improvement 
having been inaugurated during his mem- 
bership. 

In 1897 he was made president of one of 
the juries at the Brussels Exposition, and 
although the rules of the E.xposition forbid 
any member of a jury to be a member of 
the superior jury, that body passed a reso- 



lution by which he was made a member of 
it and served during their deliberations. For 
his services he received a decoration from 
King Leopold, but has been often heard to 
say the Loyal Legion badge was all the dec- 
oration that any .\niercian needed in the 
presence of his countrymen. Governor 
Murphy appointed him a member of the 
Kew Jersey Commission of the Louisiana 
Purchase Exposition. He served in the 
Fifty-eighth and Fifty-ninth Congresses, 
and was elected to the Sixty-first Congress 
by a plurality of 8,260 over Pratt, Demo- 
crat. 



HENRY OTTO WITTPENN 

JERSEY CITY 



HENRY OTTO WITTPENN. one of 
Jersey City's most representative and 
Useful citizens, who, as mayor of that city, 
has given it one of the best and cleanest ad- 
ministrations in its entire history, was born 
tliere, October 21, 1872. He is the son of 
John J. Wittpenn, and is of German par- 
entage through both his father and mother, 
tracing back his descent through an old and 
respected German ancestral line. He was 
the eldest of five children, two boys and 
three girls. His father was a successful 
grocer for many years at No. 320 Com- 
munipaw Avenue, Jersey City, and it was 
from him that the son inherited soimd bus- 
iness sense and an integrity that character- 
ized him in whatever he did. 

The younger Wittpenn received his edu- 
cation in the ])tiblic schooN of his native 
place and then went abroad and took two 
years special studies. On the completion 
of his studies, he enteretl the grocery busi- 
ness owned by his father, after which he 
took cliarge of the business, applying him- 
self with energy and intelligence to the 
duties assigned him and ma.stering every 
detail of the enterprise. Upon the death of 



liis father, he succeeded to the business, 
which he subsequently enlarged by adding 
tliereto a wholesale feed business and by 
opening a branch establishment at Black 
Tom Island. For a numljer of years he 
continued successfully to carry on the gro- 
cery and feed business, but, being ambitious 
and ])rogressive, and believing that the 
manufacture and sale of building bricks of- 
fered greater opportunities for the future, 
he disposed of his grocery store and feed 
interests and embarked in the brick indus- 
try, organizing the firm of Houghtaling & 
Wittpenn. The venture proved a success 
from the very beginnintj and, tlianks to the 
ability with which Mr. Wittpeiui guided its 
affairs, it speedily developed into one of 
the learling and most prosperous undertak- 
ings of its kind in that section of the State. 
.■\s a business man Mr. Wittpenn possesses 
every requisite quality. His judgment is 
sound, his perceptions arc clear, and he is 
governed in his methods by a rigid integrity 
of the old school. 

.\ DemiKrat in his political principles, al- 
ways deeply interested in questions of civic 
an<l national imj>ortance, it was not until 



2l8 



BIOGRAPHICAL CYCLOPEDIA 



1904 that Mr. Wittpenn entered the arena 
of poHtics, in that year being made the 
nominee of his party for the office of Coun- 
ty Supervisor of Hudson County, to which 
position he was elected by a pluraHty of 
3, 535. The best evidence of his successful 
and efficient administration of the duties of 
that office is to be found in the fact that in 
1906, when he again came before the people 
for re-election, his plurality was increased 
to 20, 449. His rugged honesty, coupled 
with his relentless opposition to graft in all 
its forms, his business-like and capable man- 
agement of county affairs, and his standing 
as a citizen, gave him prominence as a can- 
didate for the Mayoralty nomination in Jer- 



sey City, and in 1907 he was named as the 
Democratic choice for that dignity, thus be- 
coming the opponent of Mayor Mark M. 
Pagan, the Republican candidate, who had 
three times easily defeated his Democratic 
adversaries. The election was hotly con- 
tested but ]\Ir. Wittpenn was elected by 
the unusually large plurality of 9, 324, car- 
rying every ward and almost every election 
precinct in the city. As Mayor he proved 
worthy of the confidence reposed in him 
by the public; served with credit and gave 
the city an administration devoted to the 
general interests. Mayor Wittpenn is un- 
married and makes his home with his 
widowed mother and sisters. 



HARRY WRIGHT 

NEWARK 



HARRY WRIGHT, who is one of the 
few members of the New Jersey bar 
recognized as a specialist in real estate law, 
was born in Brooklyn, New York, Febru- 
ary 14, 1881. He is the son of Simon 
Wright and Lena Tobias, who removed to 
New Jersey with their son when he was 
about two years of age. It was in the pub- 
lic schools of that city that the younger 
Wright received his rudimentary educa- 
tion. He subsequently attended the New- 
ark High School, after which he took a 
course in a business college. He then es- 
tablished himself in business in Newark as 
a manufacturer of pearl buttons and jewel- 
ry novelties, in which line of industry he 
continued for a year and a half. 

Having a natural inclination for the law 
and a strong ambition to make that profes- 
sion his work in life, Mr. Wright retired 
from manufacturing in order to become a 
student at the New York Preparatory 
School, later entering the New York Uni- 
versity Law School. In the meantime he 
read law under David Kay, Jr., of Newark, 
until that gentleman gave up his active 



practice, when he completed his legal stud- 
ies in the office of George M. Titus, re- 
maining there until he was admitted to the 
bar of New Jersey as an attorney, Febru- 
ary 24, 1902. He was made a counselor in 
1905. After his admission to the bar, Mr. 
Wright secured a position in the service of 
the Fidelity Trust Company, of Newark, 
in order to familiarize himself with real es- 
tate titles and subsequently opened an of- 
fice for the general practice of law, with 
real estate law as a specialty. Mr. Wright 
made a close study of the last mentioned 
Ijranch of his profession, his knowledge of 
real estate law being broad and complete. 
He has acquired an enviable reputation in 
that field and he has succeeded in building 
up a practice that is both large and import- 
ant. He is noted, too, for the care and at- 
tention that he gives to the interests of his 
clients and he has been successfully identi- 
fied with considerable litigation of more 
than ordinary consequence. He is coun- 
sel for a number of leading merchants and 
prominent firms, and has attained a stand- 



BIOGRAPHICAL CYCLOPEDIA 



219 



ing in his profession tliat could only be ac- 
quired by a lawyer of genuine ability. 

Mr. Wright is affiliated with the Repub- 
lican party politically and he takes an ac- 
tive interest in the campaign work of that 
organization, although he has never 
sought or held public office. He belongs 
to the New Idea branch of his party and 
has been prominent and rendered really 
valuable service in advancing the principles 
thereof. He is a citizen of strong public 
spirit, and he is always ready to lend a 
hand to any movement that tends to pro- 



mote the general welfare of the community 
at large. He is a member of Corinthian 
Council No. 644, Royal Arcanum, of New- 
ark, and of William Walter Phelps Council 
Xo. 180, Junior Order of L^nited Ameri- 
can Mechanics, of which body he is a Past 
Councilor. He is a Hebrew in his relig- 
ious faith and holds membership in the He- 
brew Synagogue B'nai Jeshurun. He was 
married January 31, 1905, to May Silver- 
berg, daughter of Isaac Silverberg, of 
Newark. To this marriage has been born 
one child, a daughter, Marion Beatrice. 



WILUAM J. SEWELL 

CAMDEN 



WILLIAM J. SEWELL, United 
States Senator from 1881 to 1887 
and from 1895 until the time of his death 
was born in Castlebar, County Mayo, Ire- 
land, in 1835. He came to this countr)' at 
an early age, and engaged in mercantile 
pursuits. At the outbreak of the civil war he 
was commissioned Captain of the Fifth New 
Jersey V'olunteers. He served during the 
war and was brevetted Brigadier-General 
for distinguished services at Chancellors- 
ville, where he made the celebrated charge 
in command of the Second New Jersey 
Brigade, capturing nine stands of colors, 
and recapturing the regimental standard of 
a Xew York regiment. He was also bre- 
vetted Major-General for gallant services 
fluring the war, and awarded a medal of 
honor by Congress for distinguished gal- 
lantry on the field at Chancellorsville. He 
participated in almost all the battles of the 
.Army of the Potomac, and was wounded 
at Chancellorsville and Gettysburg. After 
the war he became connected with the rail- 
roads in New Jersey wliich are branches 
of the Pennsylvania system, of several of 
which he was an executive officer. He was 
Vice-President of the West Jersey and 
Seashore Railroad. 



He was elected State Senator from Cam- 
den County in 1872, and was re-elected in 
1875, and again in 1878. He was President 
of the Senate when his party was in power. 
General Sewell's service in the State Sen- 
ate covered the period of the amendments 
to the New Jersey State Constitution, the 
resolution creating the commission to sug- 
gest the same having been introduced by 
him. He took a leading part in the con- 
struction and passage of all the general 
laws, including the railroad law, his vote 
being the deciding one on the passage of 
the first railroad Municipal Tax Bill. The 
present taxation clause in the Municipal 
Corporation Act, which brings the State 
such a large revenue, was his suggestion. 

While a member of the Legislature he 
was elected to the United States Senate in 
1881, as the successor of Tlieodore F. Ran- 
dolph, and served until the close of his term 
in 1887. He was again elected to the 
L'nitcd States Senate, in 1805, to succeed 
the Honorable J. R. McPherson. He was 
elected a delegate to the Rcpul)lican Con- 
ventions of 1876, 1880, 1888, 1892 and 
1896, and on each occasion was made chair- 
man of his delegation. He was also ap- 
pointed a National Commissioner for New 



220 



BIOGRAPHICAL CYCLOPEDIA 



Jersey of the World's Fair at Chicago. He 
was elected by Congress, upon the death of 
General McClellan, a member of the Board 
of Atanagers of the National Home for 
Disabled Volunteer Soldiers, of which he 
was Vice-President. He commanded the 
Second Brigade of the National Guard of 



the State, and was connected with the man- 
agement of various banks, trust companies, 
and philanthropic societies. General Sew- 
ell was a Republican all his life, and de- 
voted a large part of his time to the success 
of his party, both in the State and Nation. 
He died December 27, 1901. 



JOSEPH GUSTAVE WOLBER 

NEWARK 



JOSEPH GUSTAVE WOLBER, son 
of Gustave J. and Frances (Tithorn) 
Wolber, was born in Newark, May 2, 1883. 
He was educated in the public schools and 
the high school of his native city, being 
graduated from the high school in 1898. 
After leaving school he entered the office 
of Joseph A. Beecher a promient lawyer 
of Newark, where he remained for some 
time. Deciding to make the practice of law 
his profession he entered the New York 
University Law School being graduated 
therefrom in 1905 with the degree of Bach- 
elor of Laws. While in the university he 
studied law under Frank H. Sommer. He 
also won the faculty scholarship in his jun- 
ior year and honorable mention upon his 



graduation. He was admitted to the New 
Jersey bar as an attorney in November, 
1905, and as a counselor in November, 
1908. After leaving the university he be- 
came secretary to Morris R. Sherrerd, 
Chief Engineer of the Board of Street and 
Water Commissioners of Newark. In pol- 
itics he is a Republican and has always 
taken an active interest in the party. He 
is a member of the Lawyers Club of Essex 
County, the New York University Law 
School Alumni Association, the Phi Delta 
Phi Fraternity, the New York University 
Alumni Association of New Jersey and al- 
so numerous other fraternal and social or- 
ganizations. He is unmarried. 



SIMON PHILLIPS NORTHRUP 

NEWARK 



SIMON PHILLIPS NORTHRUP, of 
the Fidelity Trust Company of New- 
ark, was born near Branchville, Sussex 
County, New Jersey, August 23, 1876. He 
is the son of Oscar and Mary J. (Phillips) 
Northrup, both his father and his mother 
being of old Sussex County families of Col- 
onial English origin. The son was edu- 
cated in Dickinson College in the class of 
1897 and graduated from the Law School 
of Yale University in 1899 with the degree 



of Bachelor of Laws. At Yale he was Pres- 
ident of the Wayland Club and on gradua- 
tion received the Kent prize for superiority 
in debate. 

Admitted to practice before the New 
Jersey bar in February 1899, he was after- 
wards in several law offices and finally 
formed a partnership in 1905 with Francis 
Lafiferty. This partnership was dissolved 
in 1907 when Mr. Northrup entered the 
employ of the Fidelity Trust Company of 



BIOGRAPHICAL CYCLOPEDIA 



221 



Newark. He has held important positions 
in that corporation and in 1909 was elected 
Assistant Title Officer. A Democrat in his 
political views, he has always taken an ac- 
tive interest in the affairs of his party, es- 
pecially during the National Campaigns 



when his services have been called for as a 
political orator. He is a member of the 
Park Presbyterian Church of Newark. He 
married Jennie M. Roe, daughter of 
George W. Roe, of Newark, and has one 
child, Mary Elizabeth Northrup. 



HARRY V. OSBORNE 

NEWARK 



HARRY V. OSBORNE was born in 
Newark, New Jersey, August 29, 1872, 
and is an attorney and counselor-at-law. 
He comes of an old New Jersey family. His 
grandfather and father were connected 
with the Morris and Essex Railroad from 
its earliest days, both being members of the 
Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers. He 
studied law in Trenton, in the office of the 
late Robert S. Woodruff, was admitted as 
an attorney in November, 1895, and as a 
counselor in February, 19CX3. Moving to 
Newark he began practice there in 1896. 
In spite of a busy professional career, he 
has found time for the study of social and 



charitable problems, and has been for some 
time counsel for the Newark Bureau of As- 
sociated Charities, of which he is also a di- 
rector. He is manager of and attorney for 
the Bureau of Adjustment of the Newark 
Credit Men's Association. His advent into 
public life was as an independent candidate 
for the nomination on the Democratic tick- 
et for State Senator from Essex county. He 
won from two other candidates, one of 
whom was an independent and the other the 
regular organization candidate. He was 
elected to the Senate by a plurality of 684 
over Everett Colby, Republican, his prede- 
cessor in office. 



AUGUSTE JOSEPH VARNO 



MONTCLAIR 



AUGUSTE JOSEPH VARNO, a prom- 
ment and influential figure in the whole- 
sale wine trade of New York City and for 
thirty years a leading and representative 
citizen of Upper Montclair, New Jersey, 
was born August 8, 1844, at Besancon, 
France, and died suddenly of an apoplectic 
stroke at Montclair, May 3. 1909. He was 
the son of Claude Varno and was descend- 
ed from old and respected ancestral stock 
through both his parents. He received his 
education in the public schools of New 
York and the College of the City of New 
York, and embarked in business as a whole- 



sale wine merchant, with headquarters in 
White street, in New York City, his ven- 
ture meeting with success from the very be- 
ginning, due to the ability and shrewd judg- 
ment with which he conducted its affairs. 
He was a man of pronounced executive ca- 
pacity, upright and honest in all his deal- 
ings, and he had the respect and confidence 
of a wide circle of friends and acquaint- 
ances, his sterling worth as a man and his 
standing as a merchant recommending him 
to the regard of every one. He was ener- 
getic, progressive and enterprising, and he 
built up a business that was one of the most 



222 



BIOGRAPHICAL CYCLOPEDIA 



representative of its class in the metropolis. 
He wielded an extended influence in trade 
circles and no man ranked higher than he 
in his own field of endeavor. 

Locating at Upper Montclair in 1881 he 
became one of the leading and most respect- 
ed citizens of that place, his public spirit 
causing him to take an active part in every 
movement that tended to advance the inter- 
ests of that section. He was especially in- 
terested in the work of the local fire depart- 
ment and was a charter member of Hook 
and Ladder Company No. i of Montclair, 
which was organized in 1882. Six years 
later, when Hose Company No. 4, of Upper 
Montclair, then known as Cliflfside Hose 
Company, was organized he resigned from 
the truck company and became a charter 
member of the hose company, of which he 
was the foreman and ruling spirit for a 
number of years. Mr. Varno was an ex- 
empt fireman and a member of the Fire- 
men's Relief Association, of which latter 
body he was the president for a number of 
years, declining a re-election to that office 
four years before his death. He was a 



member of Montclair Lodge, Royal Ar- 
canum, and of the Loyal Association. He 
was an Independent in his political views 
and affiliations but was never agressive in 
his partisanship, having no political am- 
bitions to gratify and neither holding office 
nor desiring public preferment. He was 
warm hearted and generous, his personality 
was a pleasing one, and he was devoted to 
the interests of his home and family. His 
mental attainments were of a marked order 
and he was possessed of an exceptionally 
wide range of information. In social life 
as in business, he was warmly esteemed and 
he thoroughly merited the success which 
came to him as the fruit of his energy and 
just methods. He was a member of the 
Montclair Club, the Athletic Club of which 
he was a governor and secretary ; the Upper 
Montclair Golf Club, the Apollo Club and 
the Montclair Democratic Club. He was a 
member and treasurer of St. James Church. 
He married in 1879, Eva Halsted. daugh- 
ter of Dr. J. W. Halsted and Keziah Blair 
Gaddis, by whom he was survived, together 
with one daughter, Evaline Halsted Varno. 



JOHN W. LANE 

NEWARK 



JOHN W. LANE, commercial sales- 
man, was born in Weymouth, Massa- 
chusetts, October 5, i860. When only four 
years of age he was brought by his parents 
to Hudson City, New Jersey, now Jersey 
City Heights. There he was educated in 
the public schools and in 1878, having com- 
pleted his education, he entered the office 
of Jeremiah R. Cleveland, who was then 
Register of Deeds for Hudson County. Af- 
ter remaining in that office for four years, 
he became the travelling representative for 
Carter, Rice & Co., paper manufacturers of 
Boston, remaining with that concern for 
seven years. In 1889 he associated himself 
as salesman with D. S. Walton & Co., of 



New York City, one of the largest manu- 
facturers and jobbers of manilla paper in 
the United States, and with that concern he 
has maintained unbroken relations, until 
the present time in 1909. 

For fifteen years he has been a resident 
of Essex County; most of that time in East 
Orange, but later as a citizen of Newark. 
He is a member of the Essex County 
Democratic Committee and vice-president 
of the East Orange Democratic City Com- 
mittee. Mainly through his efforts the 
Democratic Club of East Orange was or- 
ganized. In 1906 he was elected a member 
of the assembly of New Jersey by a plur- 
ality of 5,979 over the candidate polling the 



BIOGRAPHICAL CYCLOPEDIA 



223 



highest vote on the Republican ticket. He 
received the highest vote given to any As- 
sembly candidate at this election and al- 
ways has run ahead of his ticket in every 
election in which he has figured. In the As- 
sembly he made a creditable record. Among 
other important measures which he intro- 
duced and championed was the bill for the 
improving of Newark Harbor, known as 
the Lane Dock bill, which provided for 
measures calculated to make Newark an 
important shipping centre and perhaps one 
of the greatest cities in the world in that 
respect. Through the influence of the Board 
of Trade of the City of Newark the gov- 
ernment at Washington has taken an ac- 
tive interest in the proposition to help make 
the City of Newark a port of entry in fact. 
The building of the canal and the reclama- 
tion of meadow land has been the hope of 
the best and most enterprising citizens of 
Newark. The Board of Trade has for 
forty years studied the proposition. Al- 
though opposed to the Lane bill before the 
Legislature it is now giving much time and 
attention towards helping the city authori- 



ties with the aid of the country's best en- 
gineers to make Newark known throughout 
the world as the natural gateway to the 
South and West. The meadow land which 
is to be relaimed amounts to almost one- 
third of the city in area. It is now pro- 
posed to hold a World's Exposition 1914 
on the reclaimed land. The newspapers 
are also urging the authorities to give this 
proposition their support. He also served as 
chairman of the Committee on Banks and 
Insurance and reported out of Committee 
the present insurance laws of the State. 

Mr. Lane is a member of many political 
and social organizations of Essex County. 
Me is past Exalted Ruler of East Orange 
Lodge No. 630, Benevolent and Protective 
Order of Elks and takes a particularly ac- 
tive part in the promotion of the interests 
of that order. He married November 3, 
1885, at New Haven Connecticut, Cora 
Agusta Denning and they have three chil- 
dren : one daughter, Cora Elizabeth, wife 
of Harry C. Roberts, of East Orange, New 
Jersey, and two sons, John W. Jr., and 
Cecil Francis Lane. 



FRANKLIN PIERCE McDERMOTT 

JERvSHY CITY 



FRANKLIN PIERCE McDERMOTT, 
who has achieved prominence as a mem- 
ber of the New Jersey bar, was born in 
Tenncnt, Monmouth County, New Jersey, 
on the historic battle-ground of Monmouth, 
October 23, 1854. He is the son of William 
McDermott and Lydia E. Thompson, and 
traces his descent from old and notable 
New Jersey ancestry through both parents, 
the family name having been prominently 
identified for more than a century with the 
locality where he was born. The founder 
of the .American branch of the family. 
which is of ancient Irish origin, was Wil- 
liam McDermott, who was impressed into 
the British army in Ireland at the time of 



the American Revolution and brought to 
this country under the command of Colonel 
Monckton, who was killed at the battle of 
Monmouth. Shortly after reaching Amer- 
ica, McDermott determined to support the 
cause of the colonies and refused longer to 
hear British arms, although to the end of 
his days, he retained a warm regard for 
his old commander. Colonel Monckton. 
.\fter the decisive battle of Monmouth. Mr. 
McDermott settled in Monmouth County, 
New Jersey, where his descendants have 
ever since resided. He had a large family ; 
one of his sons, Miles, was the father of 
the William McDermott first mentioned 
above; this William McDermott was a man 



224 



BIOGRAPHICAL CYCLOPEDIA 



of energy and excellent judgment; he was 
formerly a contractor and builder, but later 
in life engaged in the real estate and insur- 
ance business, of which he was an acknowl- 
edged master, at Freehold, where he died 
in 1908. 

The son, Frank P. McDermott, received 
an excellent preparatory education, first in 
the public school in Englishtown, Mon- 
mouth County, and afterward in the Mon- 
mouth School and the Freehold Institute, 
of Freehold, where he pursued a classical 
course in the hope of entering college, an 
ambition that he was forced to forego ow- 
ing to adverse circumstances affecting his 
father's fortunes. He left school in 187 1 
but returned to his studies for a short time 
in 1873, at the Freehold Institute. Having 
decided to adopt the law as his profession, 
he became a student in the office of Acton 
C. Hartshorne and ex-Judge Chilion Rob- 
bins, and was admitted to the bar of New 
Jersey at the November term, 1875, shortly 
after attaining his majority, and was made 
a counselor-at-law in November, 1878. Im- 
mediately after his admission, he began the 
practice of his profession in Freehold, 
where his recognized abilities as an advo- 
cate, his knowledge of the law, and his de- 
votion to the interests of his clients speedily 
won for him a leading place among the suc- 
cessful lawyers of his section. 

Mr. McDermott's practice at the Free- 
hold bar became extensive and profitable, 
and, desiring a broader field for the exer- 



cise of his energies and talents, he removed 
his office in the fall of 1894 to Jersey City, 
where he has since remained and where, as 
in his native county, he has built up a large 
and important practice and gained repute 
as a thoroughly qualified and skillful law- 
yer. In 1904 John Mulford Enright be- 
came associated with him in Jersey City, 
where the firm of McDermott & Enright is 
well and widely known. Mr. McDermott 
was a commissioner of the town of Free- 
hold for four years and has since represent- 
ed the town in its litigation. He has made 
a special study of probate, commercial and 
corporation law, and compiled articles and 
pamphlets on the corporation laws of New 
Jersey which have been accepted as au- 
thoritative. He is general counsel for a 
number of important interests and takes 
pride in the long list of business men whom 
he serves. 

Mr. McDermott is a member of the Law- 
yers' Club of New York, the Lotos Club 
and other clubs of lesser promineftce. He 
married, March 11, 1880, Anna Elizabeth 
Thompson, daughter of Dr. Joseph C. and 
Elizabeth (Combs) Thompson, of Tennent, 
Alonmouth County, New Jersey. To this 
union have been born three sons and one 
daughter, namely, Franklin Pierce, Jr., who 
was graduated from Princeton University 
in 1902, William C, who obtained his de- 
gree from the same university in 1908, Jo- 
seph T. and Mary Scudder. 



GEORGE W. KNIGHT 

NEWARK 



GEORGE W. KNIGHT, who by his 
natural ability and energy has 
achieved for himself a position of worth 
in the business world, was born in New- 
ark, New Jersey, September 13, 1882. He 
is the son of Walter J. Knight and Marie 
A. Besser. Educated in the Newark 



Academy, he was graduated from that in- 
stitution in 1901 and then continued his 
studies in the Stevens Institute of Ho- 
boken, from which institution he was 
graduated with the degree of Mechanical 
Engineer in 1905. Immediately after com- 
pleting his education, he entered the em- 



BIOGRAPHICAL CYCLOPEDIA 



225 



ploy of the Standard Oil Company as as- 
sistant to the chief engineer of the New 
York Transit Company, a branch of the 
Standard Oil Company. Subsequently, he 
became associated with the M. W. Kel- 
logg Company, contractors and manufac- 
turers of mill supplies, of which concern 
he was made one of the erecting superin- 
tendents. Shortly after he had been grad- 
uated from the Stevens Institute, he en- 
gaged in partnership with two associates, 
under the name of the Dairy & Confec- 
tionery Refrigeration Company, and has 
permanently retained his connection with 
that corporation, being vice-president of it 
in 1909. About a year after the organiza- 
tion of the above corporation he became 
one of the organizers and partners of The 
Engineering Company of New York. In 



1908 he was appointed supervising engi- 
neer of the Board of Education of the City 
of Newark. 

Starting with a thorough education, Mr. 
Knight has made good use of his opportu- 
nities and the qualifications with which he 
was originally equipped. He has achieved 
a remarkable success for a young man, 
and has steadily arisen to rank among the 
most prominent and most esteemed pro- 
fessional men in the community in which 
he lives. He is a member of Kane Lodge 
No. 55, Free and Accepted Masons of 
Newark, and also a member of the Board 
of Trade of that city. He married Elsa 
A. Hartdegen, daughter of Charles Hart- 
degen, of Newark, and has one child, 
George W. Knight, Jr. 



FREDERIC GOODING MASON 

EAST ORANGE 



FREDERIC GOODING MASON, who 
achieved distinction as an expert in 
telegraphy and subsequently figured in the 
field of liability underwriting with like 
credit, was born in La Salle, Illinois, Oc- 
tober 29, i860, and died at his home in East 
Orange, New Jersey, February 23, 1909, 
after undergoing an operation for appendi- 
citis. He was a son of Stephen Codding 
and Cornelia R. (Gooding) Mason, tracing 
his descent on both sides from olrl and nota- 
ble ancestral stock, his forebears having 
participated in the War of the Revolution 
and taken a notable part in the earlier ac- 
tivities of the nation. The elder Mason be- 
gan his career as a telegraph operator, 
working his way u|)ward until he became 
general superintendent of the company with 
which he was connected. He now lives in 
retirement in the West. 

The son inherited the father's peculiar 
talents to a marked degree. He received 
his rudimentary education in the public 



schools of Moberly, Missouri, and else- 
where, and early in life, following in his 
father's footsteps, took up the study of 
telegraphy on lines then under the superin- 
tendency of the elder Mason. He e.Kliibited 
a marked aptitude for the calling from the 
very outset and speedily developed a skill 
and i)roficiency that marked him as one of 
the ablest and most reliable operators In the 
employ of the company. Advancement fol- 
lowed as a natural consequence and he rose 
in the course of time to important positions 
in the service which called him to Omaha, 
and later to Chicago. It was while serving 
at the latter city that his ability attracted the 
attention of William Henry Smith, general 
manager of the Associated Press, who in- 
vited him to become his private secretary. 
Accepting that appointment, Mr. Mason 
came to New York from Chicago in 1883 to 
assume responsible duties in the executive 
office of that telegraphic news service and 
his record there, as in every other position 



226 



BIOGRAPHICAL CYCLOPEDIA 



ever held by him, showed an intelHgent ex- 
ecution of the work assigned to him and of 
steady promotion. During the clash be- 
tween the news-gathering organizations, 
now historic in the annals of American 
journalism, which began in 1892 and con- 
tinued for several years, Mr. Mason was a 
prominent figure and his services to the in- 
terests represented by him were most valu- 
able. In the end, the complicated task of 
settling up the business fell to his lot as the 
assignee of the competing company. 

About that time Mr. Seward, president 
of the Fidelity and Casualty Company, who 
knew him as a friend and neighbor, ten- 
dered him an appointment in the Liability 
Department of the corporation of which 
he was the executive head. Mr. Mason ac- 
cepted, entered the service of the company 
and the diligence and ability with which he 
mastered the details and intricacies of lia- 
bility insurance are still referred to with 
pride by his associates and superior offi- 
cers. Their testimony as to his worth and 
work are recorded in words of the highest 
praise and if he had been spared to contin- 
ue the new pursuit in which he had em- 
barked, there can be no question as to the 
pre-eminence which he would have won. 
It is conceded that he would have rounded 
out his life as a liability underwriter of the 
foremost grade and as one who was emi- 
nently fitted for executive duties along 



those lines. Possessed of an intellect of 
unusual power, broad, analytic and singu- 
larly clear of vision, Mr. Mason combined 
with this quality other notable gifts of 
mind and manner rarely found in the 
abundance that graced and enriched his 
character. He was closely identified with 
the work of the Insurance Press, of which 
publication he was a director and vice- 
president. 

He was a past Master of Hope Lodge, 
Free and Accepted Masons, of East Or- 
ange, in which place he made his residence 
and was regarded as a leading and repre- 
sentative citizen. For three years he acted 
as secretary of the lodge and was popular 
in all Masonic circles. He was also a 
member of the Sons of the American Rev- 
olution, the Democratic Club of East Or- 
ange, and various other organizations, in- 
cluding several New York clubs. A man 
of generous impulses and warm sympa- 
thies, he was a liberal contributor to benev- 
olent and other worthy purposes,' and al- 
ways ready to perform his part in move- 
ments affecting the material interests of 
the community in which he lived. Mr. Ma- 
son married June 3, 1885, Elizabeth Cald- 
erwood, daughter of Robert Calderwood 
and Alice Mather, of Omaha. To this un- 
ion the only child living is Alice Calder- 
wood Mason, of East Orange. 



VIVIAN M. LEWIS 



PATERSON 



VI\aAN M. LEWIS was born in Pater- 
son, New Jersey, June 8, 1869, and 
prior to his admission to the bar was en- 
gaged as a correspondent of several New 
York newspapers. He was appointed Judge- 
Advocate of the old Second Regiment, Na- 
tional Guard, in July, 1896, and served un- 
til the reorganization in 1899, when he was 
placed on the retired list with the rank of 



Captain. He was elected to the Assembly 
in 1898, 1899 and 1900, and was leader of 
the Republican majority on the floor of the 
House during his last term. For many 
years he was one of the counsel of the State 
Board of Health. He was elected City 
Counsel of Paterson in 1904 for a full term 
of office, but resigned upon his appointment 
by Governor Murphy as Clerk in Chancery, 



BIOGRAPHICAL CYCLOPEDIA 



227 



to fill the vacancy caused by the resignation 
of Edward C. Stokes, who was elected Gov- 
ernor. Nominated for a full term of office 
in 1905, by Governor Stokes, he was con- 



firmed by the Senate. In 1909 he was 
named by Governor Fort as Commissioner 
of Banking and Insurance to succeed David 
O. Watkins. 



FREDERICK U. DODGE 

NEWARK 



FREDERICK U. DODGE, one of 
Newark's foremost business men, is a 
descendant of the famous Dodge family of 
New England, from whom he has inherited 
in a marked degree sterling characteristics. 
His great-grandfather was a sea-faring man 
of Boston, and his grandfather, Daniel 
Dodge, was the head of the great Dodge 
Tailoring Establishment of New York City. 
Frederick U. Dodge was born in New- 
ark, New Jersey, September 19th, 1885. He 
is a son of Allen W. and Sarali (Poole) 
Dodge, both of whom were long residents 
of Newark. Allen W. Dodge, who died 
October 19th, 1907, long followed the brass 
moulding business in Newark and New 
York. Frederick U. Dodge obtained his 



education in the public schools of Newark 
and for a time made a study of printing 
and photo engraving. After several years 
of such study and having acquired a knowl- 
edge of those arts, he engaged in business 
for himself and in 1909 is the head of one 
of the most successful Advertising Agen- 
cies in New Jersey. 

Mr. Dodge is an able commercial artist 
and runs in conjunction with his advertis- 
ing agency a large art department which 
adds much to the distinction of his busi- 
ness. His specialty of design, has placed 
him at the head of business of this kind, 
and he is recognized as a commercial en- 
gineer of talent and high accomplishment. 



ARCHIBALD STEVENS ALEXANDER 

HOBOKEN 



ARCHIBALD STEVENS ALEXAN- 
DER, a member of one of New Jer- 
sey's most distinguished families, one of 
the ablest of the younger lawyers of New 
Jersey, and a rising power in the Demo- 
cratic politics of tlie State, was born in Ho- 
boken. New Jersey, .August 22, 1880. He 
was the son of Archibald and Caroline B. 
Alexander, and comes of the well-known 
Alexander family of New Jersey, one of 
the oldest and most notable in that com- 
monwealth. That Mr. Alexander .sliould 
be successful in politics is not surprising in 
view of the family history in that respect. 



his forebears having been conspicuous in 
public aflfairs for many generations. His 
great-grandfather. Colonel John C. Stevens, 
was State Treasurer of New Jersey during 
the Revolution and his great-great-grand- 
father, John Stevens, was President of the 
Council of East Jersey in 1783, while his 
great-uncle, William Cowper Alexander, 
son of the Reverend Archibald .Mexander, 
the first professor in the Theological Sem- 
inary at Princeton, served as a member of 
.Assembly, was a State Senator from 1853 
to 1868, during four years of which period 
he was president of the Senate, and in 1857 



228 



BIOGRAPHICAL CYCLOPEDIA 



was a candidate for Governor against Wil- 
liam A. Newell. 

Archibald Stevens Alexander received 
his preparatory education at St. Paul's 
School, Concord, N. H., and afterward en- 
tered Princeton College, from which insti- 
tution he was graduated in the class of 
1902. Having decided upon the law as his 
profession in life, he attended the New 
York Law School, and was graduated 
therefrom with the class of 1904. Immedi- 
ately establishing himself in practice in his 
native place, as a member of the firm of 
Besson, Alexander & Stevens, he was not 
long in demonstrating his aptitude and abil- 
ity for the calling in which he was en- 
gaged. 

Politics attracted his attention from the 
very beginning of his career. A Democrat 
in his political principles and affiliations, 
he interested himself actively and with en- 
thusiasm in the campaigns of that organiza- 



tion and in 1905 was a member of Assem- 
bly, serving in that body with a distinction 
that caused him to be renominated by his 
party as his own successor. He was de- 
feated for re-election, however, by Scott, 
whose plurality was 988, the lowest of any 
candidate on the Republican ticket, thus 
demonstrating Mr. Alexander's personal 
popularity. Again a candidate for Assem- 
bly on the Democratic ticket in 1906, Mr. 
Alexander was elected over Lamb, the Re- 
publican nominee, by the substantial plur- 
ality of 18,354. Serving his term, his rec- 
ord in the Legislature was creditable in the 
fullest sense of the term. 

Personally, Mr. Alexander is public 
spirited to a pronounced degree and high 
in his ideals. He is a member of the Ivy 
Club of Princeton, the Princeton Club 
of New York, the Racquet and Tennis 
Club, and the Whiffany River Country 
Club. 



BENEDICT PRIETH 

NEWARK 



BENEDICT PRIETH, who attained 
eminence in German-American jour- 
nalism as one of the ablest, most repre- 
sentative and successful editors and man- 
agers attached to that profession, was born 
in Graun, Tyrol, January 7, 1827, and died 
in Newark, New Jersey, October 29, 1879. 
He was the third child of Gabriel and Anna 
Prieth, and was descended on both paternal 
and maternal sides from old and respected 
German families, his father being clerk of 
the Courts of Graun. The son received his 
rudimentary education in his native city 
and afterward, with a view to adopting the 
law as his professional work in life, studied 
at Innspruck, Gratz and Vienna, in which 
latter place he joined the student legion in 
1848 and took part in the revolution that 
followed the formation of that body. Af- 
ter the suppression of the outbreak, young 



Prieth was seized by the authorities as a 
political offender and confined in the prison 
of Salzburg, from which he was released 
in the latter part of 1849 and sent to his 
home in Tyrol. It was then that he turned 
his attention to journalistic pursuits and af- 
ter being connected for some time with the 
Bozener Zeitiing, he went to Switzerland, 
where he became attached to the Bund in 
Berne, subsequently continuing his studies 
in Munchen and Tubingen and receiving 
his diploma as Doctor of Jurisprudence. 

His attention having been directed to the 
United States as a promising field for the 
exercise of his talents, he came to this 
country in August, 1857, and located in 
Newark, New Jersey, where he had rela- 
tives and in which city his subsequent ca- 
reer was spent. Instead of taking up law, 
however, he turned to journalism and 



BIOGRAPHICAL CYCLOPEDIA 



229 



found employment as a writer on the New 
Jersey Zcitiiiig, published in Newark, in 
which capacity he continued to serve until 
the following spring, when, on April 26, 
1858, he became the sole proprietor and 
manager of the paper, changing its name to 
that of The New Jersey Freie Zeitung. Un- 
der his direction, the publication became 
popular and a power among the German- 
American element. His progressive meth- 
ods and energetic management rendered the 
paper a profitable and valuable property 
within a short period and it became recog- 
nized as the leading and ablest edited Ger- 
man-American newspaper of New Jersey, 
its editorial views carrying weight, its in- 
fluence being extended, and its opinions 
proving potential in public afifairs. Mr. 



Prieth was a forcible, convincing editorial 
writer as well as a shrewd business man, 
and his paper was always to be found on 
the right side in all matters concerning or 
affecting the general welfare. An ardent 
and uncompronn'sing Reiniblican in his po- 
litical principles, he was an earnest up- 
holder of the cause of that party and 
throughout the War of the Rebellion his 
voice and pen were active and of value in 
the cause of the l^nion. 

Mr. Prieth was married to Theodora 
Santermeister, in 1854, by whom he was 
survived. His children were : Mrs. Charles 
A. Fcick, Mrs. L. W. Faber, Mrs. Henry 
Thielen, Benedict Prieth and Edwin S. 
Prieth. 



MARCUS ULBRICHT 

NEWARK 



MARCUS ULBRICHT, banner, pic- 
torial and scenic artist was born 
March 30, 1851, in Chemnitz, Saxony, Ger- 
many. He is the son of Louis E. and Caro- 
line (Mueller) Ulbricht. His father was 
an expert accountant, who died at the age 
of forty-five and his mother was an ac- 
complished teacher of French in the public 
schools of Chemnitz. 

Young LHbricht received his education in 
the public schools of his native place. Af- 
terwards he entered the employ of the Rich- 
ard Hartmann Son's Locomotive Works 
of Chemnitz, where he remained for a short 
time. In November 18^15, his mother with 
six children, four sons and two daughters, 
came to America, and going at once to 
Newark, settlcfl fliore. where an uncle of 
the children, William Dreher, was already 
established as a prominent druggist. The 
boy found early employment as an engraver 
with a jewelry manufacturing concern, 
which connection he maintained until he 
was nineteen years of age. At that time. 



he went to work at artistic sign painting 
for Westerfeld & Hapward, with which 
firm he was identified until he reached his 
majority. Even after he became of age, 
he continued in the same employ until 1878, 
when he decided to engage in business on 
his own account. Since that tiine, he has 
been pre-eminently successful and is recog- 
nized as one of the most successful pic- 
torial, scenic and banner artists of his age. 
He makes a specialty of painting on silk 
and is the only professional artist in the 
State of New Jersey that does work of this 
character. He paints theatre scenery, 
coats-of-arms, monograms and banners, 
the latter being one of the specialties in 
which he has particularly distinguished 
himself, although he and his son who is 
now associated with him carry on a large 
business of all kinds of picturesque paint- 
ing. He is also an expert photographer 
and has a large and valuable collection of 
art treasures and coat-of-arms. His resi- 
dence and studio, owned and built by him 



230 



BIOGRAPHICAL CYCLOPEDIA 



for the purpose, are located at 144 West 
street, Newark. 

Mr. Ulbricht married in 1875 Frederica 
Freiensehner of Newark, by whom he has 
had four children : Louis E., who is in busi- 



tinction as a musician ; Paul M., who is a 
tool maker and noted athlete ; Helen, who 
is the wife of Kuno Oflfer, and Caroline, 
who is the wife of John D. Ayres. Mr. 
and Mrs. Uubricht are members of the 



ness with his father, and has attained dis- Lutheran Church. 



ERNEST R. ACKERMAN 

PLAINFIELD 



ERNEST R. ACKERMAN was born in 
New York City, June 17, 1863, and has 
been a resident of Plainfield, New Jersey, 
for the greater part of his life. He was 
educated in the Plainfield public schools, 
graduating from the High School in the 
class of 1880. His ancestors were ac- 
tively engaged in the Revolution. Philip 
Markley, his great-great-grandfather, was 
appointed, in 1777, a commissioner to col- 
lect supplies for the American army, and 
John Markley, his great-grandfather, 
served in the Pennsylvania militia in 1781. 
His father was J. Hervey Ackerman, of 
Plainfield, President of the Common Coun- 
cil, and at one time City Judge. 

Obtaining a position with the Lawrence 
Cement Company, in New York, Mr. Ack- 
erman rose through its various offices to 
that of president, which position he still oc- 
cupies. As a member of the Plainfield 
Common Council, in 1891-1892, he was op- 
posed to the granting of unlimited fran- 
chises to public utilities corporations, and 
vigorously strove to limit the grants which 
were being considered at that time. He 
was elected to the New Jersey State Senate 
in 1905 by a plurality of 2,799 over Nu- 
gent, Democrat. He was re-elected to the 
Senate in 1908 by a plurality of 5,895 over 
Hyer, Democrat. In 1907 he was appoint- 
ed by the New Jersey Senate, with Sena- 
tors Hutchinson and Price, a committee of 
three to investigate the subject of capital 
punishment, and was delegated to pursue 
tlie European end of the inquiry. On this 



mission he visited Great Britain, France, 
Belgium, Germany and Spain. An ex- 
haustive report on this subject was pre- 
sented by the committee to the Senate of 
1908. The civil service law is considered 
by some as being the most important act of 
the Legislature of 1908. Mr. Ackerman 
introduced the bill on the first day of the 
session. After continuous struggling 
throughout the winter and early spring, it 
was finally passed on the night of the last 
day of the session, and in a form to meet 
the approval of those advocating this re- 
form, which has been so successful for 
many years in other States and in the 
United States Government. He served as 
chairman of the Senate Committees on Fi- 
nance, Corporations and Riparian Rights, 
and for two sessions was a member of the 
Committee on Appropriations. 

Mr. Ackerman was a Republican Presi- 
dential Elector in 1896, and was secretary 
of the New Jersey Electors in 1897. He 
has been Chairman of the Republican City 
Executive Committee of Plainfield, and has 
been a delegate to city, county, State and 
National Conventions of the Republican 
party. He was selected by the National 
Convention, held in Chicago, in June, 1908, 
to be New Jersey's representative on the 
committee to notify the Honorable James 
S. Sherman of his nomination to the office 
of Vice-President. For twenty years he has 
been a director of the Young Men's Chris- 
tian Association, and is an honorary gov- 



BIOGR/\PHICAL CYCLOPEDIA 



231 



ernor of the Muhlenburg Hospital, of 
Plainfield. He is a member of the New 
York Chamber of Commerce, the Union 
League CUib of New York, the Lawyers' 
Club, and the American Association for the 
Advancement of Science. He is also an 
active philatelist and numismatist, an asso- 



ciate of the American Society of Civil En- 
gineers, and a fellow of the American 
Geographical Society. Notwithstanding his 
many duties, Mr. Ackerman has found 
time to travel extensively, having made 
fourteen voyages to Europe, and also two 
trip.s encircling the globe. 



LESLIE DODD WARD, M. D. 

NEWARK 



LESLIE DODD WARD, M. D., bears 
the names of two of the early settlers 
of the town of Newark, the records of 
which afford abundant evidence of their 
important services in building up the set- 
tlement and making it the foremost city in 
New Jersey. His earliest ancestor in this 
State was Josiah, son of George Ward, of 
Bran ford, and the first, traditionally, to 
place foot on shore at the landing of the 
pilgrims on the Passaic. His father, Moses 
Dodd Ward, in the early part of the last 
century, removed to Madison, Morris Coun- 
ty, New Jersey, where Leslie Dodd W'ard 
was born July i, 1845. In his native place 
the lad received his preliminary education. 
Subsequently he became a jnipil in the old 
and famous academy at Newark, where he 
prepared for entrance into the College of 
New Jersey at Princeton. 

It was near the close of the summer term 
of tlie academy, in June, 1863, that the 
Confederate Army, under General Robert 
E. Lee, invaded Pennsylvania, creating 
widespread alarm through the entire North- 
ern States. An appeal was made by the 
Governor of Pennsylvania to the Gov- 
ernors of the adjoining States, and in re- 
sponse thereto the Governor of New Jer- 
sey called for volunteers to go to the aid 
of Pennsylvania in this emergency. In an- 
swer to this call eleven companies, consist- 
ing of seven hundred men and officers, 
went to the seat of war. Among them 
was the subject of this sketch, as a Cor- 



poral in Company P., commanded by Cap- 
tain William J. Roberts. It was a short 
campaign, and when completed the young 
soldier returned to his home and the re- 
sumption of his academic course. This he 
continued to pursue with so much credit 
to himself that, at the approaching com- 
mencement exercises, when he was to be 
graduated, he was awarded a position of 
honor among the orators of the occasion. 
His name was called and the subject of his 
oration announced, but while the audience 
awaited his appearance the master of the 
academy stepped forward and apologetically 
stated that young Mr. Ward had just en- 
listed in the Thirty-seventh Regiment and 
that his duties as First Sergeant of Com- 
pany G prevented the delivery of his 
speech. A shout of applause burst from 
the audience which no speech could ever 
have elicited. It was a fact that young 
Ward had, for the second time, ere he had 
reached the age of nineteen, enlisted as a 
soldier in the anny of the Union. The 
commander of the regiment in which he 
last served was Colonel E. Btird Grubb, 
and with him he remained until the regi- 
ment was mustered out of service in Oc- 
tober. 1864. 

It was his experience among the sick and 
the wounded during his term of service in 
camp an<l field that led the young soldier 
to believe that the life of a physician was 
one that he ought to adopt. Returning to 
his home fully convinced of this, he en- 



232 



BIOGRAPHICAL CYCLOPEDIA 



tered after a short rest the office of Dr. 
Fisher, a well-known physician of Morris- 
town, New Jersey, where he began the 
study of medicine. In due time he became 
a student in the College of Physicians and 
Surgeons in New York City, and was grad- 
uated from that institution in 1868. Hav- 
ing determined to make Newark the field 
of professional labors, he became asso- 
ciated in practice at first with Dr. Lott 
Southard, a well-known and esteemed phy- 
sician of that city. This connection con- 
tinued for two years when Dr. Ward 
opened an office of his own, and soon made 
himself well and favorably known as a 
medical practitioner. In 1876 he became 
a member of the Medical Board of St. 
Michael's Hospital, the oldest institution of 
the kind in Newark, and for several years 
was Secretary of the Board. He was also 
visiting surgeon to St. Barnabas Hospital, 
a position which he held with credit to him- 
self and with benefit to those who came 
under his care. In 1877 h^ was appointed 
County Physician of Essex County, an of- 



fice which devolved upon him many duties 
that had been performed prior to 1876 by 
coroners and magistrates. 

In the organization of the Prudential In- 
surance Company of America, Dr. Ward 
took an early and active part. He was one 
of its incorporators and a member of its 
first Board of Managers. As early as Oc- 
tober 1875, when it issued its first policy, 
he was its medical director, and continued 
in that position until 1884, when he was 
chosen its first Vice-President. The duties 
of this office, which are largely of an ex- 
ecutive character, he still performs, and it 
may be truly said that, for its admirable 
discipline and the promptness with which 
its daily work is performed, this mam- 
mouth institution is greatly indebted to Dr. 
Ward's admirable executive ability. 

Dr. Ward was married, March 5, 1874, 
to Miss Minnie Perry, daughter of James 
Perry, Newark, New Jersey, and by her 
had two sons : Leslie P. and Herbert E. 
The latter died in February, 1905, leaving 
a widow and infant daughter. 



JOHN DESCH 

CALDWELL 



JOHN DESCH, long prominent in the 
Democratic affairs of Essex County 
and who, as warden of the Essex County 
Penitentiary, has effected many important 
reforms and improvements in the conduct 
of that institution, was born in Newark, 
New Jersey, April 22, 1855. He is the 
son of Henry Joseph Desch and Mar- 
garet Fleckenstein, his parents being natives 
of Germany, who came to this country from 
Bavaria in 1853, settling in Newark. The 
son received his education in the St. Peters 
Parochial School and public schools of his 
native city. After completing his studies, 
he went to work for the firm of Headley & 
Farmer, manufacturers of trunks, in New- 
ark, with which concern he remained for 



about thirty years, becoming an expert in 
all relating to that line of industry and 
proving one of the most valuable employes 
in the firm's service. 

In 1906 he resigned his position with 
Headley & Farmer in order to accept the 
appointment of warden of the Essex Coun- 
ty Penitentiary, in which official capacity he 
has made a marked success, performing his 
duties with an intelligence, effectiveness and 
fidelity that have won him the approval of 
the public generally, irrespective of political 
considerations. Under his administration 
of affairs, a number of changes have been 
made in the conduct of the prison that have 
been of the greatest benefit to the in- 
stitution and Mr. Desch has amply demon- 



BIOGIL'\PHICAL CYCLOPEDIA 



233 



strated that he is the riglit man in the right 
place. 

A Democrat in his pohtical views, he has 
always taken an active influence in the cam- 
paigns of his party and he exercises a strong 
influence in the politics of his county. He 
was a member of the Democratic County 
Committee for a number of years but re- 
signed from that body when he became 



warden. He holds membership in the Gott- 
fried Kreugcr .Association, of which organ- 
ization he has long been a director. He be- 
longs to a number of other leading organ- 
izations and is popular as a citizen. He mar- 
ried May 3, 1881, Susan Oslertag by whom 
he has had si.x children, four sons and two 
daughters. 



WILLARD P. VOORHEES 

NEW BRUNSWICK 



WILLARD P. VOORHEES was 
born in New Brunswick, New Jer- 
sey, July 28, 1851. After studying in the 
Rutgers College Grammar School, and un- 
der the tutelage of the late Gustavus Fisch- 
er he entered Rutgers College, from which 
institution he was graduated in 1871 and is 
now a trustee thereof. He studied law in 
the office of Judge Woodbridge Strong, 
and was admitted to practice as an attor- 
ney in 1874, and as a counselor four years 
later. As a receiver he settled the affairs 
of several large companies. He was coun- 



sel in many important cases, one of which 
was for the executors of the estate of Chris- 
topher Meyer, which involved in litigation 
over $6,000,000. For some time he was 
one of the Water Commissioners of New 
I'.ninswick. He was appointed Associate 
Justice of the Supreme Court by Governor 
I'"ort January 22, 1908, for a term of seven 
years, and was at once confirmed by the 
Senate. His term will expire in 191 5. In 
politics he is a Republican. His circuit 
comprises the counties of Monmouth, Bur- 
lington and Ocean. 



EDMUND W. WAKELEE 

DEMAREST 



EDMUXD W. WAKELEE was bom in 
Kingston, New York, November 21, 
1869. He was graduated from the Kings- 
ton Academy and then entered the Xew 
York L^niversity, from which institution he 
was graduated in 1891, being a member of 
the Delta I'psilon and Phi Delta Phi col- 
lege fraternities. He was admitted to the 
bar in New York and afterward in New 
Jersey, and is a memlx-r of the law firm of 
Wakelee, Thomall & Wright with practice 
in both Xew York and \ew Jersey. He is 
a member of the Republican Club of New 



York and many other clubs and civic or- 
ganizations. He is also a member of Al- 
pine Lodge, Free and Accepted Masons, 
and New Jersey Consistory S. P. R. S. 
32nd degree, Hackensack Lodge No. 658 
Benevolent and Protective Onler of Elks, 
Royal Arcanum, and Knights of Honor. 

He served in the Assembly in 1899 ^"^ 
1900 and during the latter year was the Re- 
jjublican leader on the floor of the House. 
In 1900 he was elected to represent Bergen 
county in the New Jersey Senate to fill an 
unexpired term of one year. He has been 



234 



BIOGRAPHICAL CYCLOPEDIA 



re-elected for full terms of three years each 
in 1901, 1904 and 1907. During the years 
in which he has been a member of the Sen- 
ate he has served on all the important com- 
mittees of that body. He has been the Re- 
publican leader on the floor of the Senate 
and has served as President of the Senate. 
During the term of Governor Murphy Sen- 
ator Wakelee, then president of the Senate, 



became Acting Governor on several occa- 
sions when Governor Murphy was absent 
in Europe and other places. Senator 
Wakelee is a member of the New Jersey 
Republican State Committee, representing 
Bergen County and also is a member of the 
executive committee of the State Commit- 
tee. 



OLIVER M. CAIRNS 

NEWARK 



OLIVER M. CAIRNS was born in the 
city of New York in the year 1857. 
His father, William Cairns, was a native 
of Ireland, who came to this country in 
1835 and spent the remainder of his life in 
New York City, where he died in 1902. 
Oliver M. Cairns received his education in 
the public schools of his native city of New 
York. After leaving school he became a 
pattern maker and in 1887 he removed to 
Newark where his services were engaged 
by Strieby Foote & Co., manufacturers of 
carriage hardware of that city with which 
concern he remained for a long period of 
twenty-one years and still continues with 
them, holding a position of responsibility. 
Politically Mr. Cairns is a Republican 
and is an active and influential member of 



his party, being one of the most popular 
Republicans in the First Ward of Newark. 
He was in 1908 a member of the 
Board of Aldermen, having been elected in 
1906 by a plurality of sixty-four. In the 
Common Council of Newark he is a mem- 
ber of the Construction and Alterations of 
Buildings, Printing and Stationery, Fourth 
of July Celebration, and Outing commit- 
tees, and has been elected a trustee of the 
City Home by the Commission Council. 

He is a member of the First Ward Re- 
publican Club of Newark, Lodge No. 21, 
Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks ; 
of Radiant Star Lodge, No. 190, Inde- 
pendent Order of Odd Fellows; and of 
various other political and social organiza- 
tions. 



GEORGE R. GRAY 

NEWARK 



GEORGE R. GRAY, long active and 
prominent in the business life and 
political affairs of New Jersey, was 
born in Newton, Sussex county, that 
State, April 25, 1842. He is the son 
of Thomas Gray and traces his de- 
scent from old and respected Scotch-Irish 
ancestry, the American branch of the fam- 



ily having been founded by his grandfath- 
er, a native of Ireland, who came to this 
country and settled in Sussex county, be- 
coming a pioneer in the iron industry. 

The younger Gray received his educa- 
tion in the public schools of his native 
town, in which place the first seventeen 
years of his life were spent. He also at- 



BIOGRAPHICAL CYCLOPEDIA 



235 



tended the Newton Collegiate Institute and 
for a time was a student in the Presby- 
terian Academy .after which he entered 
upon his career in a clerical capacity in the 
hardware establishment conducted by Jolm 
C. Tucker. When that business failed dur- 
ing the early days of the Civil War, Mr. 
Gray removed to Newark, where he has 
since made his home and in which place 
he entered the service of Wright & Com- 
pany, manufacturers of carriage springs, 
remaining with that concern until 1863, in 
which year the enterprise was reorganized 
under the style of the Passaic Springs 
Works. Mr. Gray continued with the un- 
dertaking in its new form and the ser- 
vices rendered by him were so valuable that 
in 1869 he was invited to become a partner, 
in which capacity he did much toward pro- 
moting the material interests of the ven- 
ture, his sound judgment, keen business 
sense and executive ability proving potent 
factors in attracting to the company the 
wide patronage and high prestige which it 
attained. 

Mr. Gray has always taken an active 
part in politics and has figured as a factor 
therein. A Democrat in his convictions, he 
was made the nominee of his party as City 
Treasurer of Newark and elected to that 
office in January, 1875. He performed his 
I)ublic duties and adjusted the various de- 
partments of the city of Newark with an 
intelligence and effectiveness that won him 
the fullest public regard, the task involving 
the care of millions of dollars. His ad- 
ministration of the finances of the city 
were so satisfactory that when his term ex- 
pired he was appointed secretary of the 
Hoard of Assessors anrl Revision of Taxes, 
in which responsibility he again proved 
himself fully capable. In 1881 he was 
made superinten'lent of the Newark Aque- 
duct Board, which position he retained for 
a period of ten years, fulfilling its func- 
tions with characteristic ability. In 1891 
he was elected Treasurer of the State of 
New Jersey for a term of three years and 



in 1892 was made a member of the State 
Board of Commissioners of Electrical 
Subways by Governor Abbett, being ap- 
pointed to a full term of five years to that 
(^iflfice by Governor Werts in 1893. In 1903 
he was appointed a Judge of the Court of 
Errors and Appeals by Governor Murphy 
and served for six years. March 30, 1909, 
Governor J. Franklin Fort reappointed him 
to the bench. 

As a judge he has always been able and 
impartial, his judicial duties being ren- 
dered in such a manner as to add to his 
reputation as one of the really representa- 
tive and leading men of his State. His 
services as State Treasurer gained him a 
resolution of thanks from a Republican 
Legislature and in every position of trust 
ever held by him he has been uniformly 
eflRcient and worthy of public confidence. 
He has also earned deser\'ed repute in fi- 
nancial circles by his achievements in that 
direction. Appointed temporary receiver of 
the United States Credit System of New- 
ark by Chancellor Alexander T. McGill, 
when that concern failed, he so admin- 
istered its affairs as to be made permanent 
receiver, the "Financial Review" of Sep- 
tember 18, 1894, commending his ap- 
I)ointment as wise and judicious, as, in- 
deed, it proved. On December 23, 1897, 
he was appointed by the courts of New 
York, Pennsylvania, Ohio, Kentucky, Mis- 
souri, and California as one of the two re- 
ceivers of the Herring-Hall-Marvin Safe 
Company, one of the largest concerns of 
its class in the world, and on December 
20, 1900, he and his co-receiver turned 
over the enterprise with its aflfairs all ad- 
justed to the original corporators whose 
appreciation of his services were expressed 
by their making him one of the directors 
of the new organization. He also demon- 
strated his ability as receiver of the Granite 
State Provident Association of Manches- 
ter, New Hampshire, as well as in the ex- 
ecution of other important trusts. 

He is vice-president of the Essex and 



236 



BIOGRAPHICAL CYCLOPEDIA 



Hudson Gas Company. He was President 
of the Second National Bank at the time 
it was absorbed by the Union National 
Bank and since then has been a director 
of the Union National Bank, of Newark, 
and a director of the Firemen's Insurance 
Company. He is a director of the Public 
Service Corporation, and of the Consoli- 
dated Traction Company. As president of 
the T. B. Peddie Trunk Company of New- 
ark, he has contributed in no small degree 
to the welfare and prestige of that pros- 
perous enterprise, which is one of the lead- 
ing ventures of its kind in this country. 

Mr. Gray is popular in social life as well 
as prominent in politics and business cir- 
cles. He holds membership in the Essex 
County Country Club, the Essex Club, the 
Athletic Club, the Jefifersonian Club, the 
Gottfried Krueger Association, the Joel 
Parker Association, the Lawyers' Club, 
the Reform Club, the Democratic Club, of 
New York, and the Lake Hopatcong Club. 



One of his biographers has said of him 
that 

"The chief characteristics of Mr. Gray 
are a quiet determination and masterful 
power, which go straight forward to the 
goal, overcoming every obstacle and hin- 
dered by no delay ; a persistent perform- 
ance of strict duty ; an intuition of the 
right moment when to seize opportunity; 
and a self-poise which, combined with in- 
herent qualities of mind and intention, 
teach when and how to act in any difficult 
emergency." 

Mr. Gray married August 16, 1864, 
Mary L. Ball, daughter of Augustus R. 
Ball, who was at one time a member of the 
firm of J. M. Quimby & Company, leading 
carriage manufacturers of Newark. Mrs. 
Gray is descended from an old and promi- 
nent colonial family, one of her ancestors 
being among the founders af Newark, 
while a number of others figured con- 
spicuously and with honor in the annals of 
the State. 



EDWIN AUGUSTUS STEVENS 

HOBOKEN 



COLONEL EDWIN AUGUSTUS 
STEVENS, noteworthy among the 
representative men of New Jersey as a me- 
chanical engineer of wide repute and high 
standing, as well as for his pre-eminence in 
the local aft^airs of Hudson county, was 
born in Philadelphia, March 14, 1858. He 
is a son of Edwin Augustus Stevens, the 
founder of the Stevens Institute of Tech- 
nology, and Martha Bayard Dod, and a 
great-grandson of John Stevens, a member 
of the first Federal Congress. 

Colonel Stevens springs from an old and 
honorable ancestral line. The founder of 
the family in America was John Stevens, 
the great-great-grandfather of Colonel Ed- 
win Augustus Stevens. He came to this 
country from England in 1699, at about the 
age of seventeen years, and settled in New 



Jersey, at Perth Amboy, where he married a 
daughter of Niel Campbell, colonial gover- 
nor. He had a son, John, who was born in 
New York City, about 1708, and died in 
1792. The second John Stevens was one 
of the joint commissioners for defining the 
boundary line between New Jersey and 
New York, in November, 1774. He resigned 
as royalist councillor, in 1776, and from 
August of that year until 1782 was vice- 
president of the Council of New Jersey. In 
November, 1783, he was elected to the Fed- 
eral Congress, and on December 18, 1787, 
presided over the State Convention that rat- 
ified the United States Constitution. He had 
a son, John, third of the name, who was 
born in New York City about 1749 and died 
March 6, 1838, at Castle Point, in Hoboken, 
New Jersey, which he built. The original 



BIOGR.\PHICAL CYCLOPEDIA 



237 



building was replaced in 1855 by the present 
stately mansion. He was graduated from 
King's College, now Columbia University, 
in 1768, was admitted to the bar, and during 
the Revolutionary War held several import- 
ant offices. He afterward married and re- 
sided in winter on Barclay street, in New 
York City, while the summer months were 
spent on the estate of Hoboken, which he 
owned. Most of his life was devoted to ex- 
periments at his own cost, and the field of 
.American invention owes much to his ef- 
forts in this direction. In 1790, he petitioned 
Congress for protection to American inven- 
tors, which resulted in a law, passed April 
10, 1790, that formed the foundation of the 
present American patent law. 

Having begun experiments in the appli- 
cation of steam in 1788, he continued them, 
largely in association with Nicholas I. 
Roosevelt and the elder Brunei, who subse- 
quently built the Thames tunnel. Mr. Stev- 
ens, his brother-in-law, Robert R. Livings- 
ton, and Nicholas I. Roosevelt built a steam- 
boat and navigated the Hudson River near 
the close of the eighteenth century, the leg- 
islature of New York having offered a 
monopoly of exclusive privileges to the 
owners of a boat that should attain a speed 
of three miles an hour under given condi- 
tions. Their boat, however, failed to de- 
velop the required speed and their joint 
proceedings were interrupted in 1801 by the 
appointment of Mr. Livingston as minister 
to France. In Paris the latter met Robert 
Fulton and was later associated with him 
in establishing and developing steam navi- 
gation. As for Mr. Stevens, his name has 
its place in hi.story in connection with the 
origin and early development of .steam as 
a motive power for water and land trans- 
portation, and to him belongs the honor of 
putting this great force into direct opera- 
tion. In 1804 he constructed a small ves- 
sel, propelled by twin .screws, that navi- 
gated the Hudson, being the first applica- 
tion of steam to the screw propeller. The 
engine and boiler of this early steamboat 
were subsequently deposited in the Stevens 



Institute at Hoboken, and are now at the 
Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D. 
C. This boiler was of the water tube type, 
the tubes being made of musket barrels. 
In 1807, Mr. Stevens and his son, Robert, 
buill the paddle wheel steamboat "Phoenix," 
which was used on the Delaware River for 
six years. This boat, according to Pro- 
■fes.sor James Renwick, "was the first to 
navigate the ocean by the power of steam." 
While Fulton's "Clermont" was in success- 
ful work before the "Phoeni.x", they were 
building at the same time. The fact that 
Fulton, through Chancellor Livingston's in- 
fluence, was able to i)rocurc an order from 
the British Privy Council permitting the 
export of the Boulton and Watt engine, 
used on the "Clermont", while the 
"Phoenix" engine was built in this country 
with very inadequate facilities, is gen- 
erally believed to account for Fulton's 
priority. 

Among the patents taken out by Stevens 
was one in 1791, for generating steam; two 
in the .same year, described as improve- 
ments in bellows and on Thomas Savary's 
engine, both designed for pumping; the 
multi-tubular boiler, in 1803, which was 
patented in England in 1805 in tlie name of 
his eldest son, John C. ; one in 1816 for 
using slides ; an improvement in rack rail- 
roads in 1824; and one in 1824 to render 
shallow rivers more navigable. 

It was in 1812 that Mr. Stevens made the 
first experiments with artillery against iron 
armor. On October 11, 181 1, he estab- 
lished the first steam ferry in the world 
with the "Juliana," which was operated be- 
tween New York City and Hoboken. In 
1813. he invented the ferry-boat with the 
paddle-wheel in the middle, which was 
turned by six horses. This tj'pe of horse- 
power boat was long used on the Hudson 
and East rivers. In February, 1812, five 
years before the beginning of the Erie 
Canal, he addressed a memoir to the com- 
mis'-ion appointed to devise water com- 
munication between the sea-board and the 
lakes, urging the construction of a railroad. 



238 



BIOGRAPHICAL CYCLOPEDIA 



His plan was identical with that of the suc- 
cessful South Carolina Railroad, built in 
1830-32, which was the first long railroad 
in the United States. In 1814, Mr. Stevens 
applied to the State of New Jersey for a 
railroad charter from New York to Phila- 
delphia, which he received, 181 5. He lo- 
cated the road, but proceeded no further. 
In 1823, with Horace Binney and Stephen 
Girard, of Philadelphia, he obtained from 
the State of Pennsylvania a charter for a 
railway from Philadelphia to Lancaster, 
along the route of the present Pennsylvania 
Railroad, these being the first railway 
charters granted in this country. On Oc- 
tober 23, 1824, he obtained a patent for the 
construction of railroads, and in 1826 built 
in Hoboken a circular railroad having a 
gauge of five feet and a diameter of two 
hundred and twenty feet, on which was 
placed a locomotive with a multi-tubular 
boiler, which carried half a dozen persons 
at the rate of over twelve miles an hour. 
This was noteworthy as the first locomo- 
tive that ever ran on a steam railroad in 
America. 

Mr. Stevens was also an enthusiastic 
botanist and amateur gardner, who im- 
ported and cultivated many new plants. He 
was the father of John Cox Stevens, the 
first commodore of the New York Yacht 
Club, who commanded the yacht "Ameri- 
ca" in the memorable race in England in 
1851; of Robert Livingston Stevens, who, 
from 18 1 5 to 1840, stood at the head of his 
profession in the United States as a con- 
structor of steam vessels and their machin- 
ery, who invented many important im- 
provements and devices along those lines 
and who subsequently took up railroading, 
to which he contributed much in the way of 
design, the most important being the T rail, 
which is still in universal use in this coun- 
try; of James Alexander Stevens, who, 
with Thomas Gibbins, established the 
Union Steamboat Line between New York 
and Philadelphia, which led to the suit of 
Ogden vs Gibbins, an action that is memor- 
able for the decision placing all the navi- 



gable waters of the United States under the 
jurisdiction of the Federal government; 
and also of Edwin Augustus Stevens, who 
was born at Castle Point, Hoboken, July 
28, 1795, and died in Paris, in August, 
1868. The latter learned the profession of 
engineer with his father and his brother, 
Robert L. The two brothers were closely 
allied in business aflPairs, the elder taking 
the lead as engineer and the younger as a 
business man. Both were men of great 
capacity. Edwin Augustus Stevens was 
occupied largely in the management of his 
father's estate, on which the city of Ho- 
boken now stands. He was also connected 
with the organization, construction, and 
operation of the Camden and Amboy Rail- 
road, the charter for which was obtained 
by him and Robert L. Stevens from the 
State of New Jersey in 1830. The road 
was opened for operation in 1839-40, with 
Robert L. as president and Edwin A. as 
treasurer and manager. In 1842, the last 
named patented the air-tight fire-room for 
forced draught (the so-called closed ashpit 
system), which had been applied by Robert 
L. Stevens, in 1827, to the "North Amer- 
ica" and which is now employed all over 
the world. The brothers also tried the in- 
duced draft or suction system. All present 
marine forced draft plants are on one of 
these systems. 

The brothers spent a great part of their 
lives in devising and eflfecting improve- 
ments in the means of attack and defense 
in naval warfare, especially for ironclads. 
Robert built the celebrated Stevens battery, 
the first ironclad ever projected, which lay 
unlaunched in its basin at Hoboken for 
many years. He bequeathed it to his younger 
brother, who, at the beginning of the Civil 
War, presented the government a plan for 
completing the vessel together with another 
small vessel called the "Naugatuck". The 
smaller vessel was accepted by the govern- 
ment and was one of the fleet that attacked 
the "Merrimac". The government, how- 
ever, refused to appropriate the money on 
the plans proposed by Mr. Stevens, and 



BIOGRAPHICAL CYCLOPEDIA 



239 



upon his death he left the vessel to the 
State of New Jersey, together with one mil- 
lion dollars for its completion. Mr. Stev- 
ens invented an improved plow, which was 
extensively used for years. He remained 
the business manager of the Camden and 
Amboy Railroad for about a quarter of a 
century, and founded the Stevens Insti- 
tute of Technolog}', in Iloboken, bequeath- 
ing to it a large plot of ground, with the 
sum of one hundred and fifty thousand dol- 
lars for the building and five hundred thou- 
sand dollars for endowments. 

He married, first, Mary Barton Picton, 
and, second, Martha Bayard Dod, who was 
of the well-known Bayard family of New 
Jersey, Maryland, and Delaware, and by 
whom he was survived, his widow after- 
ward devoting two hundred thousand dol- 
lars to religious and charitable institutions, 
among them being the Church of the Holy 
Innocents, at Hoboken. 

Edwin Augustus Stevens, second son of 
Edwin Augustus and Martha (Bayard- 
Dod) Stevens, was educated in St. Paul's 
School, Concord, New Hampshire, and in 
Princeton College, from which latter insti- 
tution he was graduated in 1870 with the 
degree of bachelor of arts. A life-long 
resident of Hoboken, he has been honored 
in many ways by the people of that city, 
who regard him as their foremost and most 
representative citizen. This is amply demon- 
strated by the calls made upon him from 
time to time in the filling of public trusts 
and places of official preferment. He has 
served as park commissioner of Hudson 
county, tax commissioner for the city of 
Hoboken, commissioner for the adjustment 
of arrears of taxation for the city of Ho- 
boken, president of the Hoboken Ferry 
Company, and of the New Jersey Ice Com- 
pany, treasurer of the Hackensack Water 
Company, director of the First National 
Bank of Hoboken and of the Hudson Trust 
Company, and trustee of the Stevens Insti- 
tute. He is president of the Hoboken Land 
and Improvement Company, which, under 
his energetic and progressive management 



has accomplished not a little in the building 
up and material development of the com- 
munity. He was a member of the commis- 
sion to define the boundaries between New 
York and New Jersey, as his great-grand- 
fatlicr had been, a century before, and he 
was for a time alternate commissioner to 
the Columbian Exposition. He has in- 
herited the inventive genius of his father 
and grandfather to a marked extent and 
the first screw ferry-boat, the "Bergen", 
now plying between New York and Ho- 
boken, was designed by him. 

As a mechanical engineer, he is entitled 
to a position in the foremost rank. He is 
an associate member of the Society of Me- 
chanical Engineers and a life member of 
the Association of Naval Architects and 
Marine Engineers. He also holds member- 
ship in the consulting committee of the 
United States Standard Steamship Owners 
and of the Builders' and Underwriters' as- 
sociations. He has been active and promi- 
nent in the military affairs of his State, 
having served as adjutant of the Ninth 
Regiment, National Guard of New Jersey, 
as aide on the Governor's staff, and as col- 
onel of the Second Regiment, and is now 
on the retired list of the National Guard of 
the State. 

A Democrat in his political principles. 
Colonel Stevens has been an influential fac- 
tor in the campaigns of his party and his 
judgment has carried weight in the coun- 
cils of the organization, both state and na- 
tional. He has been president of the Demo- 
cratic Society of the State of New Jersey 
and a member of the Democratic State 
Committee. In 1888, and again in 1892, he 
was the Democratic nominee for presiden- 
tial elector for the State. He is an Epis- 
copalian in his religious faith and was long 
a member of the standing committee of the 
Protestant Episcopal Diocese of New Jer- 
sey, of which he is now treasurer. He is 
a trustee of the \\'ashington Association of 
New Jersey and a member of the Lawyers' 
Club and the University Club, of New 



240 



BIOGRAPHICAL CYCLOPEDIA 



York City, the German and Columbia clubs, 
of Hoboken, and the Atlantic Boat Club. 
Personally he is a gentleman of high intel- 
ligence and rare culture, and the distinctive 
family talents have centred in his person- 



ality to a degree that is most striking. He 
is liberal in his contributions to those pur- 
poses that he considers deserving, but his 
benefactions are performed without display 
or flourish. 



GEORGE BUCKHAM ASTLEY 

NEWARK 



GEORGE BUCKHAM ASTLEY, 
whose career as a member of the 
New Jersey Bar has been remarkably suc- 
cessful in view of his years and who is to- 
day regarded throughout eastern New 
Jersey as one of the ablest young law- 
yers in that section of the State, was born 
in Newark, October 18, 1879. He is the 
son of William C. Astley and Bertha 
Burns, his father being prominent in New- 
ark as the chief of the Fire Department 
of that city. The son received his educa- 
tion in the public schools in Newark, and 
was graduated from the Newark High 
School, afterward attending the New 
York Law School, from which latter insti- 
tution he was graduated in 1903 with the 
degree of Bachelor of Laws. He was a 
student in the office of Elvin W. Crane 
and was admitted to the Bar of New 
Jersey as an attorney fn March, 1905, be- 
ing made a counselor in March, 1908, in 
which latter year he became a partner 
of his preceptor under the firm name of 
Crane & Astley. 



Previous to that time, he had carried on 
a general practice, with offices in Newark, 
gaining repute and standing at the Essex 
County bar as a thoroughly qualified 
young lawyer of recognized ability and ac- 
knowledged learning. He built up an ex- 
cellent clientele in a short time and was 
successful in his professional work. Upon 
the death of Elvin W. Crane, in January, 
1909 he formed a partnership with Will- 
iam H. Osborne, under the firm name of 
Osborne & Astley. 

Mr. Astley is a staunch Democrat in his 
political views and has figured prom- 
inently in the local campaigns of his par- 
ty. He is a member of the Gottfried Krue- 
ger Association, and is popular among his 
associates in that large and influential or- 
ganization. He takes a marked interest 
in athletics and wholesome out-door 
sports, in which form of recreation he finds 
unfailing pleasure. He married, October 
21, 1908, Elsie G. Wilde, daughter of Jo- 
seph Wilde, of Newark. 



MAHLON PITNEY 

MORRISTOWN 



MAHLON PITNEY, Chancellor, was 
born in Morristown, New Jersey, 
February 5, 1858, and is a son of ex-Vice- 
Chancellor Pitney. He obtained his early 
education in the schools of his native town, 



was graduated in 1879. Upon graduation 
he at once commenced the study of law in 
the office of his father, who was then prac- 
ticing in Morristown. He was admitted 
to the bar as an attorney in June, 1882, and 



and entering Princeton College in 1875, became a counselor-at-law in 1885. He 



BIOGR.'^PHICAL CYCLOPEDIA 



241 



opened an office in Dover, Morris County, 
in 1882, and remained there until 1889, 
when he returned to Morristown, where he 
practiced law until his elevation to the 
bench of the Su])renie Court. 

He was elected to Congress in 1894, in 
the old Fourth District by a plurality of 
1,407 over Johnston Cornish, although the 
district was strongly Democratic, lie acted 
as temporary chairman of the Republican 
State Convention in 1895, which nominated 
Joim W. Griggs for Governor. In 1896 he 
was re-elected to Congress by an increased 
plurality. In 1898 he was elected to the 
State Senate from Morris County by a 
plurality of 831. In 1900 he was the ma- 



jority leader on the floor, and in 1901 was 
President of the Senate. He always took 
an active part in legislation both in the Na- 
tional House of Representatives and in the 
State Senate. On February 5, 1901, he 
was nominated by Governor V'oorhees for 
Justice of the Supreme Court, to succeed 
Justice Gummere, and the nomination, with- 
out reference, was at once confinned by the 
Senate. He was sworn into office on No- 
vember 19, 1901. for a term of seven years. 
On January 22, 1908, he was nominated as 
Chancellor by Governor Fort, and his 
nomination was at once confirmed by the 
Senate for a term of seven years. His 
term will expire on January 21, 1915. 



ALBERT H. BIERTUEMPFEL 

NEWARK 



ALBERT H. BIERTUEMPFEL, man- 
ufacturer, was born in Sachscn, Ger- 
many, in 1871. His ancestors for genera- 
tions were millwrights and were well known 
throughout the river sections of their na- 
tive country, where they had erected many 
water power plants. His father was a rep- 
resentative in the Landtag, at a very criti- 
cal time when the question of the separa- 
tion of land was being agitated. He was 
prominent in this controversy, and actively 
labored for the benefit of his constituents. 
The oldest member of this family, Chris- 
tian Frederick Bicrtuempfel died in 1907, 
at the age of one hundred and twenty-four 
years. 

The subject of this sketch became an ac- 
tive student of the miller and millwright 
trades in wiiich he had advanced to pro- 
ficiency when he filed an application for ad- 
mission to the Military Training School 
preparatory to a career in the army. This 
being refused, he requested permission of 
the government to leave Germany. His ap- 
plication was not granted for over six 
months, during which time he worked in 



the secret departinent of Messrs. Sauer & 
Sons' large gun factory. Upon securing 
permission to leave the country, it was 
necessary for him to depart immediately, 
as failure to do so would have made him 
liable for military service upon future visits 
to his native land. 

.\rriving in this country in 1889, before 
he was eighteen years of age, he settled in 
the Twelfth Ward of the City of Newark, 
where he has resided ever since. A few 
months after his arrival he and his brother 
erected the Central Machine Works. When 
this factory was comjileted he began to 
learn the machinist trade, at which he 
worked for over five years in the meantime 
attending the Public Night School at South 
Market street, from which he was gradu- 
ated, receiving his diploma and first prize 
for attendance, having missed no session 
during the entire time. He then attended 
the Technical School for three seasons af- 
ter which he took charge of the New Mar- 
ket Flour Mills antl the Water Turbine 
Plant, and drew the plans and specifica- 
tions for a turbine water power plant for 



242 



BIOGRAPHICAL CYCLOPEDIA 



a saw and flour mill at the Green Brook 
River. His knowledge and experience ob- 
tained in conection with these plants, com- 
bined with his early training and the pos- 
session of a naturally logical mind, have 
made him an earnest advocate of a munici- 
pal turbine water power plant for the light- 
ing of the city of Newark. To this subject 
he has given a great deal of time and study. 
Later he entered the cork manufacturing 
business, associated with his brother, and 
within a few months the company assumed 
the name of the Newark Cork Works. Sub- 
sequently he purchased his brother's inter- 
est in the business and it has been con- 
ducted ever since under his able direction. 
Under his management the business has 
increased, and now manufactures seventy- 
five per cent, of the corks made in the city 
and ninety-five per cent, of those consumed 
in the city of Newark. A large portion of 
his business is transacted with the New 
York wholesale dealers and this trade, 
which he began to supply in 1907 has 
forced him to double the capacity of his 
plant which now has a capacity of 5,400,- 
000 corks a week, the raw material for 
which he imports direct from Spain and 
Portugal. He has just completed plans for 
materially improving and enlarging his 
plant and a commodious building to be used 
as an experimenting department is now 
nearing completion. Possessed of a very 
active, bright mind, Mr. Biertuempfel has 
displayed great genius in the construction 
and development of his plant, as the im- 
provements which originated in his own 
brain and now in practical use, attest. 
Among the more notable of his devices is 
one for saving fuel for his 150 horse power 
boiler. Another is an improvement in 
cork-cutting machinery; and another is an 
attachment for converting waste cork into 
flooring. So great is the demand upon this 
establishment, that it has become necessary 
to keep constantly on hand, ready for ship- 
ment, manufactured stock amounting to 
more than $40,000 in value. 



Mr. Biertuempfel is possessed of untir- 
ing energy. He personally superintends his 
great enterprise, understanding all its de- 
tails and watching all departments with a 
practical eye. The establishment employs 
over one hundred operators, all of whom 
have constantly before them, as an incentive 
to fidelity and application, the example set 
them by their employer. 

Politically Mr. Biertuempfel is a member 
of the Democratic party, and has taken a 
quiet interest in the success of his party. 
He has been honored by his fellow citizens 
by being twice elected Alderman, a posi- 
tion to which he was elected by the largest 
plurality ever given a candidate in the 
Twelfth Ward. He is chairman of the 
committee on elections and a member of 
the committee of Weights and Measures, 
Municipal Lighting and Public Markets. A 
member of the Masonic Fraternity, he has 
passed through the various degrees up to 
and including the thirty-second. He is a 
member of the Diogenes Lodge, , No. 22, 
Free and Accepted Masons ; Essex Coun- 
ty Forest No. 8, Tall Cedars of Lebanon, 
New Jersey ; Harmony Chapter, No. 9 ; At- 
las Lodge No. 68, Independent Order of 
Odd Fellows ; Royal Arcanum, Alamo 
Council, No. 1749. He is a member of the 
Turn Verein and various social societies. 
He is a director of both the Twelfth Ward 
and the Commonwealth Building and Loan 
Associations, and a member of the Board of 
Trade. 

He was married, January 4, 1898, to Ce- 
celia Allgair, by whom he has two chil- 
dren : Alma and Frieda. Mr. Biertuempfel 
is in the prime of vigorous manhood. He 
has accomplished much, and the future, 
judged by the past, gives promise of great 
continued success. He has taken advan- 
tage of his opportunities and at the age of 
thirty-seven years, has established himself 
at the head of the business which is the 
leader of its kind in the city in which he 
resides. To the enterprise of such men 
is due the upbuilding and continued ad- 



BIOGRAPHICAL CYCLOPEDIA 



243 



vancement of any commonwealth. Their 
constructive genius finds employment for 
numerous hands, and the disbursements of 



large sums of money as wages to their em- 
ployees adds most materially to the wealth 
of the state. 



JOHN ALBERT BERNHARD 

NEWARK 



JOHN ALBERT BERNHARD, mem- 
ber of the New Jersey bar, was born in 
Rahway, that State. He is the son of 
John Bcrnhard and Matilda Sharp. Re- 
ceiving his early education at Pettie Insti- 
tute, Hightstown, New Jersey, he then en- 
tered Princeton University, from which he 
was graduated in the class of 190 1, with 
the degree of Bachelor of Arts. Having 
decided upon law as his profession, he be- 
came a student in the office of Frank Ber- 
gen, at Elizabeth, New Jersey, and was ad- 
mitted to the bar of New Jersey as an at- 
torney in 1903 and as a counselor in 1906. 
After his admission, he entered the em- 
ploy of the Public Service Corporation of 
New Jersey, as one of their attorneys and 
served in that capacity for a period of four 
years, at the end of which time, in 1907, 
he engaged in general practice on his own 
account, most of his professional work be- 
ing in the civil and United States courts. 



He succeeded in securing a large and in- 
fluential clientage, and speedily acquired 
prestige as one of the ablest of the young 
lawyers of Essex county. His offices are 
in Newark but he resides in Rahway. A 
Republican in his political opinions, he is 
active in the championship of that party's 
cause. He served with credit as a mem- 
ber of the Board of Aldermen, of Rah- 
way, in 1906 and 1907. 

Mr. Bernhard is a member of the Law- 
yers' Club of Newark, the University Club 
of that city and of Elizabeth Lodge No. 
259, Free and Accepted Masons. He is 
one of the lecturers attached to the New 
Jersey Law School, speaking on the sub- 
ject of master and servant. He has been 
successfully identified with considerable lit- 
igation of more than ordinary importance, 
and in every instance acquitting himself 
with a skill that added materially to his 
repute and legal standing. 



CLAUDE EDWARD SCATTERGOOD 

NEWARK 



CLAUDE EDWARD SCATTER- 
GOOD, active and successful in the 
insurance business, with which he has been 
connected for more than a decade, was 
born in Newark, December 3, 1878. His 
parents were John Richmond Scattergood 
of Newark, and Alice (Griffith) Scatter- 
good of Rome, New York. His father was 
of English ancestry and his mother of 
Welsh. He was educated in the Newark 



High School, from which he was graduated 
in 1895, and then was graduated from Rut- 
gers College in 1899. Taking up the study 
of law in the New York Law School, he 
was graduated from that institution in 
1902. He received the degrees of Bachelor 
of Science from Rutgers College in 1899, 
Master of Science from Rutgers in 1902, 
and Bachelor of Laws from the New York 
Law School, 1902, and was admitted 



244 



BIOGRAPHICAL CYCLOPEDIA 



to practice at the New York bar 
in November of that year. He was a 
member of the intercollegiate debating 
team of Rutgers College in 1899, when Rut- 
gers won the affirmative against New York 
University upon the subject of the non- 
permanent control of the Philippine Islands 
by the United States. His law studies in 
the New York Law School in 1901 and 
1902 were conducted evenings while he was 
working for the Prudential Insurance Com- 
pany. His disposition and his education in- 
clined him to statistical work and the ma- 
thematical study of insurance and finance. 
His business career began in the Acturial 
Department of the Prudential Insurance 
Company in October 1899, and there he 
remained for an even eight years. From 
October 1907, to January i, 1908, he was 
engaged in public accounting with Barrow, 
Wade & Guthrie, of New York City. Upon 
the above mentioned date he became man- 
ager of the Statistical Department of the 
Fidelity and Casualty Company of New 
York and has since continued in that posi- 
tion. 

In his political affiliations, Mr. Scatter- 



good is a Republican and was an advisory 
member of the Essex County Republican 
Committee in 1905, 1906 and 1907, and 
during the campaigns of 1904 and 1905 was 
a successful speaker for his party. The 
only public office he has held was that of a 
member of the Board of Education of 
Newark, in 1906 and 1907. He was presi- 
dent of the Co-operative Savings and Aid 
Society of Newark, in 1904, 1905 and 1906. 
His membership in fraternal and social or- 
ganizations include the following college 
fraternities: Zeta Psi, Theta Nu Epsilon 
and the Phi Beta Kappa. He is also a mem- 
ber of the Cosmos Lodge, No. 106, Free 
and Accepted Masons of Newark. He be- 
longs to the Third Presbyterian Church of 
Newark, and is particularly interested in 
philanthropic work, being director of a 
Boys Club in the Gospel Settlement House, 
211 Clinton street, New York City, and di- 
rector of the Young Mens Metropolitan 
Club of the Metropolitan Temple of New 
York City. He is assistant superintendent 
of the Sunday school, and president of the 
Men's Club of the church to which he be- 
longs. 



JEROME TAYLOR CONGLETON 

NEWARK 



JEROME TAYLOR CONGLETON, 
who has figured with conspicuous credit 
in Essex County legal circles and who has 
been prominently identified with the Re- 
publican politics of that section, was born 
in Newark, New Jersey, in 1876. He 
springs from old and respected ancestral 
lineage through both his father's and his 
mother's families. He received his educa- 
tion in the public schools of his native city, 
attending the Roseville Avenue and South 
Eighth Street Schools, in both of which 
he was noted for his scholarship and for 
the mental strength which has since dis- 
tinguished him as a man and lawyer. 



Leaving school in 1890, he entered 
the service of the law firm of Edward A. 
and William T. Day, in Newark, and 
evinced such a decided predilection for the 
study of law that he decided to adopt it as 
his profession. Accordingly he became a 
student under his employers, at the same 
time taking a course at the New York Law 
School. He was admitted to the bar of 
New Jersey at the June term of the Su- 
preme Court in Trenton in 1899. After his 
admission, he still remained with his pre- 
ceptors, the Messrs. Day, and on January 
I, 1901, entered into partnership with them. 
As a lawyer his abilities won almost im- 



BIOGRAPHICAL CYCLOPEDIA 



245 



mediate recognition, and lie lias proved a 
valuable addition to the firm of which he is 
a member. 

Mr. Congleton has resided in the Elev- 
enth Ward of Newark for a period of 
twenty-six years and is justly esteemed in 
that district as one of its most useful and 
representative citizens. He is a Republi- 
can in his political affiliations and takes a 
warm interest in the campaign work of his 
party, in which he has won recognition as 
a local leader whose opinions carry weight 
in party councils and who exercises strong 



influence. He was chosen a member of the 
Newark Common Council, in which body 
he has served well the general interests and 
won an enviable record as a faithful and 
efficient public officer. He has been placed 
on the more important committees of the 
Common Council, his exceptional abilities 
thoroughly etjuipping him for the duties 
thereof. He holfls membership in the Law- 
yers' Club of Essex County, the Roseville 
Athletic Association, and the Lincoln Club 
of Roseville, in all of which organizations 
he is popular and influential. 



JOHN R. HARDIN 



NEWARK 



JOHN R. HARDIN, one of the ablest 
and most prominent members of tlie 
Essex county bar and a man who has fig- 
ured with distinction in the legislature of 
his State, was born in Green township, 
Sussex county. New Jersey, April 24, 
i860. He traces his descent from old and 
respected lineage. After completing his 
preparatory education, he entered Prince- 
ton L'niversity, from which institution he 
was graduated in the class of 1880. Hav- 
ing decided upon the profession of law as 
the career best suited to his inclinations and 
natural tastes, he became a student in the 
office of McCarter & Keen, at Newark, in 
June, i88r. He was admitted to the bar of 
New Jersey as an attorney in June, 1884, 
and as a counsclor-at-law in June. 1887. 
Since 1884 he has practiced his calling in 
Newark with pronounced success, achiev- 
ing an enviable standing therein as a thor- 
oughly qualified j)ractitioner of recognized 
skill and high quality. He is a member of 
the firm of Pitney. Hardin & Skinner, one 
of the large law firms of Newark. 

He has been identified with much impor- 
tant litigation and is general counsel for a 
number of the leading merchants, firms and 
corporate interests in his section. He was 



attorney for the Newark Board of Health 
from Ajiril. 1887, to February, 1890, in 
which capacity he served with noteworthy 
credit. He represented the Fifteenth Ward 
of Newark in the Board of Aldermen from 
February, 1800. to January, 1892, during 
which official period he proved a faithful 
representative of his ward and city, his 
record being in every way commendable. 
He served in the State Assembly from the 
Sixth District of Essex County in 1891 and 
1892 and in that body was chairman of the 
Committee on Judiciary. Passed Rills and 
Federal Relations, and a member of the 
Committee on Ways and Means, and oth- 
ers. As a legislator he acquitted himself 
in a manner that won him the approval of 
his constituents and the public generally. 
He was always found ready to advocate a 
measure that tenderl to serve the general 
welfare, and his services as a member of 
the Legislature added materially to his re- 
pute and prestige. 

He has served as a member of the Board 
of Managers of the New Jersey Epileptic 
\'illagc and is one of the commissioners ap- 
pointed by the governor of the state to se- 
cure uniformity of legislation, and was a 



246 



BIOGRAPHICAL CYCLOPEDIA 



member of the commission to report ju- 
diciary amendments to the constitution of 
the state, appointed in this instance by the 
governor under authority of the legislature 
in 1907. He is a member and treasurer of 
the Essex County Park Commission, under 
appointment of Chief Justice Gummere. He 
is also a member and president of the New- 
ark Sinking Fund Commission. The social 
organizations to which he belongs are the 
Essex Club and the North End Club of 
Newark, the Essex County Country Qub 
and the Baltusrol Golf Club. He is also a 
director of the Essex County National 



Bank, and of the Mutual Life Insurance 
Company. Appointments to the judiciary 
have been tendered to him but he has con- 
stantly declined that preferment, choosing 
rather to work at the bar. He has not 
lately been active in politics, but in 1904 
and 1908 was a delegate to the Democratic 
National Convention. 

He married February i, 1894, Jennie 
Josephine Roe, a daughter of the late 
Charles Roe, of Newton, New Jersey, and 
has two sons and one daughter, Charles 
Roe Hardin, Elizabeth A. Hardin and John 
Ralph Hardin, Jr. 



OWEN F. CONLON 

NEWARK 



OWEN F. CONLON, of Newark, was 
born on the family homestead near 
Armagh, Ireland, July 4, 1861, his father, 
William Conlon, being the second son of 
Redmond Conlon, a descendant of an an- 
cient Irish family. Redmond married 
Phoebe Passmore. Mr. Conlon's mother, 
Catherine (Sheridan) Conlon, was de- 
scended from the old Sheridan family of 
Ballinarea. 

Owen F. Conlon came to this country 
with his parents in 1873 and settled in 
Newark, where he attended St. Patrick's 
Parochial School and St. Benedict's Col- 
lege. In those institutions he obtained an 
excellent training. In 1878 he entered the 
employ of John Reilly & Co. to learn the 
patent and enameled leather business, 
which he mastered in every detail, working 
through the different departments from the 
tanyard to the office. The experience which 
he acquired in these capacities has been of 
great value to him, although he did not fol- 
low the business as a life vocation. In 1884 
he engaged in the fire insurance business 
with his elder brother, Redmond P. Con- 
lon, with whom he remained until 1889, 
when he established himself in the real es- 



tate and stock brokerage business, in which 
he has since continued with uninterrupted 
success. 

Mr. Conlon has been active and promi- 
nent in public life as well as in business af- 
fairs. He served as Assessor for the 
Eighth Ward of Newark during the years 
1885, 1886 and 1887, and in November, 
1888, was elected Tax Commissioner for a 
term of two years. He was appointed by 
Mayor Haynes to the office of Tax Com- 
missioner in May, i88g, for a five years' 
term, and was President of the Board of 
Assessment and Revision of Taxes in 1893 
and 1894. His knowledge of real estate 
values, his integrity of character, and his 
earnestness in promoting the best interests 
of the city made him a valuable man in 
the positions and won for him an honorable 
reputation. 

Mr. Conlon is a member of the Board of 
Trade, of the Young Men's Catholic Asso- 
ciation of Newark, of St. Michael's Young 
Men's Catholic Association, of the Catholic 
Benevolent Legion, the Royal Arcanum, 
the Institute Boat Club, the Knights of 
Columbus, the Improved Order of Hep- 



BIOGRAPHICAL CYCLOPEDIA 



247 



tasophs. the North End and Jeffersonian 
Clubs, the Joel Parker Association, and St. 
Patrick's AHiance. He was married, Janu- 



ary 15, 1890, to Mary C, Newton, and has 
four children : Owen Newton, Marguerite, 
Leo, and Aloysius. 



HERMAN C. H. HEROLD, M. D. 

NEWARK 



HERMAN C. H. IIERULD, .M. D., 
who has attained notable eminence in 
his profession as one of New Jersey's 
ablest and most successful surgeons and 
physicians, was born in New York City, 
March 4, 1854. He traces his descent 
through both father and mother from old 
and respected ancestry. He received his 
education in the public schools of Newark, 
New Jersey, in which city he was reared, 
and afterward attended the Newark High 
School, from which institution he was 
graduated. Having determined upon medi- 
cine and surgery as the sciences most con- 
genial, he became a student at Bellevue 
Hospital Medical College, in New York 
City, receiving his degree of Doctor of 
Medicine from that institution in 1878. 

That same year he began the practice of 
his profession in Newark, meeting with 
success almost from the outset. His skill 
in surgery was so marked and his ability as 
a medical practitioner so pronounced that 
attention and support were quickly at- 
tracted, and he was not long in gaining 
recognition as one of the best qualified 
young physicians in Essex county. He was 



exceedingly successful in his practice, 
treating a number of difficult cases in so 
admirable and effective a manner as to gain 
extended prestige and render his services 
in demand. A man of scholarly tastes, he 
remained a student after he began practice 
and he kept himself thoroughly abreast of 
every discovery or improved mode of prac- 
tice in his profession, making a constant 
study of his science and its needs. 

He was made visiting surgeon to St. 
Michael's Hospital, Newark, in which ca- 
pacity he proved a valuable adjunct to the 
working force of the institution. He served 
as surgeon of the Fifth Regiment, National 
Guard of the State of New Jersey, and in 
this position, as in the other responsibilities 
that he was called upon to fill from time to 
time, he demonstrated his rare qualities as 
a careful and capable master of his calling, 
lie ranks high as a citizen as well as pro- 
fessionally, and is public spirited to a note- 
worthy degree. He holds membership in 
a number of organizations, and his repute 
is that of a practitioner and resident of 
whom his city and county have every rea- 
son to feel justly proud. 



THOMAS NESBITT McCARTER 

NEWARK 

THOMAS NESBITT McC.^RTER, was the second son of Robert Harris and 

one of the most distinguished lawyers Eliza (Nesbitt) McCarter, of Morris 

of New Jersey, was born in Morrisfown, County, and a grandson of John McCarter, 

that State, January 31, 1824, and died in of Scotch-Irish ancestry, who came to 

Newark, New Jersey, January 11, 1901. He America in 1775. Mr. McCarter inherited 



248 



BIOGRAPHICAL CYCLOPEDIA 



in liberal measure those sturdy qualities 
that marked him as a man of unusal capac- 
ity and force of character, and combined 
with this rich inheritance he from boyhood 
manifested and cultivated the natural in- 
stincts of a scholar. He was carefully pre- 
pared for college by the Reverend Clark- 
son Dunn at Newton, New Jersey, and 
when sixteen entered the junior class of 
Princeton, where he soon took high rank 
as an industrious student. He was gradu- 
ated with honors in September, 1842, being 
one of the commencement orators, and re- 
ceived the master's degree in course in 
1847. While in college he was a prominent 
member of the "Whig" Society and al- 
ways took an active part in debating circles. 
He early decided upon the law as a pro- 
fession, and very soon after graduation en- 
tered the law office of the Honorable Mar- 
tin Ryerson, of Newton, New Jersey, where 
he laid the foundation for an eminent and 
successful legal career. In October, 1845, 
he was admitted to the bar of New Jersey 
as an attorney and in January, 1849, ^s a 
counselor, and in the former year became a 
partner with his distinguished preceptor. 
This association continued until 1853. Mr. 
McCarter rapidly acquired a large law prac- 
tice and a reputation for industry, perse- 
verance, and integrity. He studied care- 
fully every question that came before him, 
solved with remarkable clearness the 
smallest problem of litigation, and gave 
close attention to even the minutest detail 
— characteristics which have attended him 
throughout a notable career. In 1854 he 
was elected collector of Sussex County, an 
office he filled for three years. In 1862 he 
was selected to the New Jersey Assembly 
by a union of both political parties without 
opposition, and in that body became chair- 
man of the Committee on Ways and Means. 
He prepared the new tax law, and was ac- 
tive and influential in other important legis- 
lation. In 1863, he was appointed reporter 
of the Court of Chancery by Chancellor 
Green, and published two volumes of its 
reports. He was director of the Sussex 



Bank, the Sussex Railroad Company, and 
the well known Morris Canal and Banking 
Company. 

In 1865 Mr. McCarter removed to New- 
ark, New Jersey, where he practiced his 
profession, and where he had Oscar Keen 
associated with him as a partner from 1868 
to 1882. Later he became the senior mem- 
ber of the law firm of McCarter, William- 
son & McCarter, composed of himself, his 
two sons, Robert H. and Thomas N. Mc- 
Carter, Jr., and his son-in-law, Edwin B. 
Williamson. This was one of the strong- 
est and best known law firms in the State, 
having an extensive practice in the State 
courts and the courts of the United States. 

Mr. McCarter was a strong pleader, and 
a man whose arguments were at once con- 
vincing and logical. Courteous and digni- 
fied in the highest degree, of a command- 
ing presence, he was a powerful advocate, 
and before a jury was the personification 
of all that is noble and just. His ability 
to grasp and elucidate the most intricate 
points of the law had few parallels. He 
was profoundly versed in jurisprudence, a 
scholar of rare legal as well as literary at- 
tainments, and a lawyer whose honesty, in- 
tegrity, and fidelity never had been ques- 
tioned. He was recognized as one of the 
strongest and most eminent members of the 
New Jersey bar, and as a citizen was uni- 
versally respected and esteemed. He was 
Presbyterian in religion, a gentleman of the 
purest Christian principles, and a man 
whose sense of honor and justice was ex- 
alted. On all moral questions he ever 
made a decisive stand for right and purity. 
His exuberant wit and repartee were well 
known and seldom equaled, and always 
gave the keenest pleasure. 

Mr. McCarter was nominated a presi- 
dential elector for New Jersey on the Doug- 
lass ticket in i860, but withdrew from the 
Democratic party on the issue made in 1864 
of the prosecution of war and ever after 
was a staunch Republican. Twice he was 
tendered the postion of justice of the Su- 
preme Court of New Jersey, — once by 



BIOGRAPHICAL CYCLOPEDIA 



249 



Governor Olden and afterward, in t866, 
by Governor Ward, but declined tbe ap- 
pointment on both occasions, preferring the 
regular practice of his profession, in which 
he was so eminently successful. Together 
with Professor Cook, of Rutgers, and the 
Honorable Abrani Browning, of Camden, 
he was appointed by Governor Bedle a 
commissioner for the New York and New 
Jersey boundary adjustment, Mr. Depew, 
Chancellor Pierson and Elias W. Leaven- 
worth being the New York members. In 
1868 he delivered the annual commence- 
ment address before the Whig and Clio So- 
cieties at Princeton College, the trustees of 
which in 1875 conferred upon him the 
honorary degree of LL. D. For many years 
he was a valued trustee of that institution 
and always took an active interest in its 
progress and welfare. He was for a time 
one of the trustees of Evelyn College, and 
was an organizer and the only president of 
the old Citizen's Law and Order League of 
Newark. He was an honorary incorporator 
of the Dickinson Law School at Carlisle, 
Pennsylvania, fellow of the American 



Geographical Society; a vice-president of 
the Scotch-Irish Society of America; and 
a member of the Washington Association 
of Morristown, New Jersey, and of the 
Princeton Club of New York. He was 
counsel for the Lehigh Valley Railroad 
Com])any, the Morris Canal and Banking 
Company, the East Jersey W'ater Company, 
the New Jersey Zinc and Iron Company, 
and many other corporations. Both as law- 
yer and citizen he was one of the noted and 
influential men of the State. 

On the 4th of December, 1849, Mr. Mc- 
Carter was married to Mary Louise, daugh- 
ter of Uzal C. Haggerty, a prominent resi- 
dent of Newton, New Jersey. Mrs. Mc- 
Carter died June 28, 1896, leaving six chil- 
dren : Robert H.. a member of the law 
firm of McCarter, Williamson & McCar- 
tcr; I'zal 11., President of tlio Fidelity Title 
and Deposit Company of Newark; Thomas 
N., Jr., also a member of his father's law 
firm; Fannie A.; Jane Haggerty (Mrs. Ed- 
win B. Williamson), and Eliza Nesbitt, all 
of Newark, New Jersey. 



CHARLES DEDERER THOMPSON 

JERSEY CITY 



CHARLES DEDERER THOMP- 
SON, an able lawyer of honorable re- 
pute at the New Jersey bar, was born in 
Newton, Sus.scx county. New Jersey. June 
28. 1853. He is a son of David Thomp- 
son and Susanna Dederer, and s])rings 
from a family of Scottish origin, the 
founder of the American branch being 
Thomas Thompson, who came to this coun- 
try from Scotland in iT/^ and settled at 
Elizabcthtown, New Jersey. Mr. Thomp- 
son is in the si.xlh generation from his an- 
cestor. His grandparents, Stephen and Su- 
sanna ( Harris ) Thompson, live<l on the old 
homestead in Morris county, which was 
purchased in 1740. David Thompson, his 



father, was born at Mendham, Morris 
county, October 26, 1808. He was gradu- 
ated from Princeton College in 1825 and 
teaching in the academy at Mendham for 
four years, read law and was admitted to 
the New Jersey bar as an attorney in No- 
vember, 1833, and as a counselor in No- 
vember. 1836. In November, 1838, he was 
appointed Surrogate of Sussex county by 
( iovernor Pennington and served in that 
capacity for five years. He continued to 
follow his profession until his death, which 
occurred at Newton, New Jersey, Novem- 
ber 8, 1888. Elected as a director of the 
Sussex Bank in Newton in 1844, he was 
for many years its vice-president and in 



250 



BIOGRAPHICAL CYCLOPEDIA 



1865 was chosen as its president, which re- 
sponsibiHty he retained until he died. He 
was married to Susanna Dederer, daugh- 
ter of Joseph and Susanna Dederer. Their 
children were: Alexander, Juliana, wife of 
David R. Hull, of Newton, Susanna Ded- 
erer, William Armstrong, a civil engineer, 
and Charles Dederer. 

The youngest son, Charles Dederer 
Thompson, was graduated from Princeton 
College in 1874 and afterward attended the 
Columbia Law School, while it was under 
the direction of the noted Dr. Theodore W. 
Dwight. Mr. Thompson then read law un- 
der his father at Newton and was admitted 
to the New Jersey bar as an attorney in 
June, 1877, and as a counselor in June, 
1880. He immediately established himself 
in the practice of his profession at Newton 
and remained there until January, 1886, 
when he removed to Jersey City and 
formed a partnership with Colonel Asa W. 



Dickinson under the firm name of Dickin- 
son & Thompson. In April, 1892, John S. 
McMaster was admitted to the firm, the 
style of which was changed to that 
of Dickinson, Thompson & McMaster 
and so continued until Mr. Dickin- 
son's death in 1899. Mr. Thompson is 
still actively and successfully engaged in 
the practice of his profession in Jersey 
City. As a lawyer he ranks among the 
leaders of the New Jersey bar, and he is 
noted for the high ability displayed and for 
the care with which he guards the interests 
of his clients. He has been successfully 
identified with much litigation of an im- 
portant nature. He was a member of the 
Town Council of Montclair, New Jersey, 
where he resided in 1894 and 1895, and in 
the latter year became a member of the 
Board of Health of that place, in which lat- 
ter capacities, as in all others, he exhibited 
sound judgement and pronounced public 
spirit. 



JAMES A. BRAY 

NEWARK 



JAMES A. BRAY was born in Wan- 
tage township, Sussex county. New Jer- 
sey, November 18, 1868. He is the son of 
John and Lydia Anne (Lateer) Bray, and his 
grandparents were Thomas and Bridget 
Bray who emigrated to America from 
county Sligo, Ireland, in 1840, when John 
Bray, the father of the subject of this 
sketch was but eighteen months old. The 
family settled in Sussex county. New Jer- 
sey, where they continued to reside and 
where Mr. Bray's grandfather and his 
father and mother died. His grandmother, 
Bridget Bray, is still living and resides 
with him in Newark. His father, John 
Bray, served in the Civil War, enlisting as 
a volunteer in Company B, Third New Jer- 
sey Cavalry. He was severely wounded 
and was honorably discharged for disabil- 



ity. The wound which he received is sup- 
posed to have had much to do with his 
death which occurred in 1876. Mr. Bray's 
mother died in 1885. 

James A. Bray received his education in 
the public schools of Sussex county. In 
1881 he went to Newark, and entered the 
employ of the William King Company, 
where he learned the trade of sash, blind 
and door manufacturing. After having 
spent ten years with this concern he left 
them to enter the employ of A. Schrafft 
and Company, sash, blind and door manu- 
facturers, as a foreman and remained with 
them seven years, resigning to accept a po- 
sition with the J. F. Glasby Lumber Com- 
pany, located at Waverly and Badger aven- 
ues, Newark, with which concern he still 
continues. 



BIOGRAPHICAL CYCLOPEDIA 



251 



Mr. Bray has for many years taken an 
active interest in politics. He is a promi- 
nent Democrat. In the years ic)04 and 
1905 he was candidate for the General As- 
sembly and in 1906 he was elected to rep- 
resent the 14th Ward in the Board of Al- 
dermen, which office he held in 1908. 
He was chairman of the Fourth of 
July Celebration and of the Public 
Health committees and member of the 
Public Markets and Elections committees. 



He is a member and director of the Gott- 
fried-Krueger Association ; a member of 
the Jeffersonian Club; of the Belmont 
Benevolent Association ; president of the 
14th Ward Democratic Club; president of 
the W'cst End Democratic Club, and a 
member of various other political and so- 
cial organizations. He was married in 
1899, to Barbara Brickmann and they have 
two sons, John and William. 



ALOYSIUS McMAHON 

JERSEY CITY 



ALOYSIUS McMAHON, a fine type of 
the successful and representative man, 
and one who has attained standing as a 
lawyer and influence in the politics of his 
native city, was born July 24, 1877, in Jer- 
sey City, New Jersey, where he still makes 
his home and practices his profession. He 
is the son of Thomas McMahon and Mar- 
garet Donovan, and is descended on both 
sides from old and respected Irish families. 
He received his education in the public 
schools of Jersey City and, having a natural 
taste and marked aptitude for the study of 
law, he became a student at the Xew York 
I^w School, from which latter institution 
he was graduated in 1898 with the degree 
of Bachelor of Laws. In October, 1898. he 
was admitted to the bar of New Jersey as 
an attorney, afterward, in regular course, 
becoming a counselor-at-law. 

Opening an office in Jersey City, he has 
practiced his profession there with notable 
success since 1898. building up a large and 
important support. He was also admitted 
to the New York bar as an attorney and 
counselor, and practiced in that State as 
well, being a member of the law firm of 
McCarthy & McMahon. .^s a lawyer Mr. 
McMahon has displayed broad legal knowl- 
edge and a skill that is effective. In those 
cases with which he has been identified, — 



and many of them were actions of im- 
portance, in which vital issues were at 
stake, — he has invaribly acquitted himself 
with an ability that has gained him exended 
professional prestige. He carries on a gen- 
eral practice and is counsel for some im- 
portant interests and leading corporations. 
His professional integrity, like his personal 
character, is of the highest and most un- 
sullied type and he enjoys the esteem and 
confidence of all with whom he has been 
brought into contact, both in a business and 
social way. He belongs to a number of or- 
ganizations, in all of which he is popular 
and influential. 

A Democrat in his political principles 
and connections, he takes an earnest inter- 
est in the campaign work of his party and 
has figured conspicuously and with Iionor 
in public life as an active member of the 
Third Ward Democratic Club of Jersey 
City, in which body his opinions carrv the 
fullest weight. Public spirited to a note- 
worthy degree, Mr. McMahon is ever fore- 
most in the advocacy and support of every 
movement that tends to advance the best 
material welfare of his city or that is cal- 
culated to promote the common interests 
of the community at large. Personally, he 
is a gentleman of culture, profound legal 
understanding, and marked intellectual 



252 



BIOGRAPHICAL CYCLOPEDIA 



strength, coupled with qualities and attain- 
ments that render him a pleasant companion 
and which have served to make him many 
warm and lasting friendships, both in pro- 



fessional and business circles as well as in 
social life. His success has been largely 
due to his own efforts and abilities, and his 
standing at the bar is of recognized credit. 



JAMES PERRY 

MORRISTOWN 



JAMES PERRY, recognized in Ameri- 
can insurance circles as one of the 
ablest, most progressive and successful 
representatives of those interests, was born 
in Newark, New Jersey, May 21, 1872. He 
is the son of Edwin A. Perry and Kate A. 
Wild, and comes of an old and well-known 
New Jersey family, his grandfather, James 
Perry, having been a leading leather manu- 
facturer of Newark and a man of promin- 
ence and influence in that city. The younger 
James Perry received his education in the 
Newark Academy and the LTniversity of 
Virginia, afterward attending the New 
York Law School, from which latter insti- 
tution he was graduated in 1896. His en- 
tire career has been practically spent in the 
service of the Prudential Life Insurance 
Company, of Newark, which he entered as 
a youth in a clerical capacity, his natural 
aptitude for the business, together with his 
energy and zeal, enabling him to win ad- 
vancement speedily and to work his way 
upward through various positions in a 
manner that augured well for his future in 
that branch of endeavor. 

He left the employ of that company, 
however, to become a student at the L'ui- 
versity of Virginia and to pursue his legal 
studies. He was admitted to the bar of 
New Jersey as an attorney in 1898 and im- 
mediately established himself in practice, 
but he remained in the profession only two 
years, having in the meantime discovered 
that all his tastes and inclinations ran in 
the direction of his former occupation. Ac- 
cordingly he determined to re-enter the in- 
surance field and in December, 1900, he 



was given a manager's contract with the 
Prudential, having for his offices the rooms 
that the company first occupied for its Or- 
dinary Department. From the very begin- 
ning of his new connection with the Pru- 
dential, it was evident that he had made no 
mistake in the departure that he had taken. 
He possessed a natural ability for the busi- 
ness that was most pronounced and the 
success achieved by him during seven years 
work in Newark was so remarkable that at 
the end of that period, in October, 1907, 
the company tendered him an agency in 
New York City. At this time his Newark 
business showed ten millions of insurance 
in force, with a premium income of half 
a million dollars. 

Establishing himself in New York un- 
der the style of the James Perry New York 
City Agency of the Prudential Insurance 
Company, Mr. Perry duplicated in the 
metropolis the success previously achieved 
in his home city. Beginning with one agent 
under him, in less than a year he found 
himself surrounded by men who were ac- 
knowledged leaders in the insurance busi- 
ness and who were attracted to his service 
by the ability and even genius with which 
he managed his enterprise. Within the 
first twelve months, the paid-for business 
of his agency represented more than four 
million dollars, and Mr. Perry was hailed 
as one of the greatest insurance managers 
known in the calling. He proved himself 
in every way worthv of the broader field in 
which he had embarked and he soon caused 
his agency to be looked upon as one of 



BIOGRAPHICAL CYCLOPEDIA 



253 



the most progressive and flourishing under- 
takings of its class in the greater city. 
A newspaper writer lias said of him that ; 

"To those who know him, there is 
nothing mysterious about the success of 
Mr. Perry. Of a sturdy character and 
whole-souled nature, he possesses unbound- 
ed enthusiasm, which must of necessity 
permeate all who come in contact with him. 
He is a born leader, having the hapi)y facul- 
ty of getting people inspired to work to 
their own and his advantage. One of the 
chief factors in the success of Mr. Perry 
has been his personal magnetism, which 
coupled with the policy contracts put out 
by his company, has enabled him to attract 
to the agency some of the greatest writers 
of life insurance." 



This warm tribute to Mr. Perry's capac- 
ity and qualifications is not overdrawn and 
he thoroughly merits the prestige that he 
has attained as an insurance manager of the 
first class. 

He is a prominent member of the Delta 
Phi fraternity and of the St. Anthony Club. 
He makes his home in Morristown, New 
Jersey, where he is esteemed as a leading 
citizen, his public spirit in all matters per- 
taining to the welfare of the community at 
large serving to gain him the regard of his 
fellow townsmen. Socially, as in his busi- 
ness relations, he ranks high and his career 
stands as an example of the success to be 
won in life by energy combined with talent. 



CHARLES BALDWIN THURSTON 

JERSEY CITY 



CHARLES BALDWIN THURSTON, 
for a quarter of a century, was one of 
the most widely known and popular resi- 
dents of Jersey City. He was born in New 
York City, April 2, 1832, of a colonial 
stock, his grandfather, the Reverend Peter 
Thurston of London, England, having ac- 
cepted a call to New York in 1767. Peter 
Kipp Thurston, the father of Charles B. 
Thurston, was a well-known pianoforte 
manufacturer in New York. He died while 
his son was young and the Iwy made his 
home with his uncle, Justice David \V. 
Baldwin, in Newark, New Jersey. In that 
city he attended the school of William 
Walton, and subsequently spent two years 
in the Academy in Chatham, under the in- 
struction of Professor Foigus, completing 
his education at the private school of Na- 
than Hedges, a well-known educator of 
Newark. 

Soon after graduating he became a medi- 
cal student with his coimsin. Dr. Dennis E. 
Smith, in Brooklyn. While there he be- 
came acquainted with Dr. Geogre Wood, 
a well-known and highly esteemed dentist. 



and, being often in his laboratory, he de- 
cided to give up medicine and apply him- 
self to the study of dental surgery. He en- 
tered the office of Dr. John Hassell, a den- 
tist of good repute, who had a large prac- 
tice in Newark. After completing his 
studies he practiced for himself, and soon 
achieved an enviable reputation. Close ap- 
plication to business brought a failure of 
health, and he gave up practice to associate 
himself with an uncle in the paint and var- 
nish business ; but this was not congenial, 
and early in 1865, he went via Panama, to 
California and Nevada, to look after some 
mining interests. He returned, via Nica- 
ragua, in 1867, and accepted the agencies 
of several large insurance companies hav- 
ing control of the insurance of several rail- 
road companies, among which was the 
I'nited New Jersey Railroad and Canal 
Company. At the time this company was 
leased to the Pennsylvania Railroad Com- 
pany he became associated with late A. L. 
Dennis in looking after the general interests 
of the Pennsylvania Railroad Company in 
New Jersey and New York, and was a di- 



254 



BIOGRAPHICAL CYCLOPEDIA 



rector in a number of railroad companies 
controlled by tbe Pennsylvania. As special 
agent of the Pennsylvania, his relations 
were of a close and confidential character. 
In 1872 he was elected Secretary and 
Trustee of the Associates of the Jersey 
Company, which position he held until his 
death. In 1882 he was elected President 
of the Jersey City and Bergen Railroad 
Company. At that time, and for many 
years, this company had been operating the 
Jersey City street railway system in an un- 
satisfactory and unprofitable manner. Un- 
der Mr. Thurston's management the road 
was rebuilt and restocked. The same suc- 
cess which had followed his efforts in his 
private business resulted from his man- 
agement of the railroad. 

On April 14, 1859, ^r. Thurston mar- 
ried Lida Armour, daughter of the late 
James J. Armour, of New York. He was 
a Thirty-second degree Scottish Rite Ma- 
son, and a member of the New Jersey Con- 
sistory. He was made a Mason in Eureka 
Lodge No. 39, Free and Accepted Ma- 
sons, in Newark in 1858, and served several 
years as secretary. He affiliated with 
Bergen Lodge No. 47, in Jersey City, and 
became Master of the Lodge in 1879. He 
was elected High Priest of the Union 
Chapter, No. 7, Royal Arch Mason, of 
Newark, in 1864, and was Representative 



of the Grand Chapter of Nevada in the 
Grand Chapter of New Jersey, and Repre- 
sentative of the Grand Lodge of Wisconsin 
in the Grand Lodge of New Jersey. He 
was Chairman of the Grand Lodge Com- 
mittee on Territorial Jurisdiction of 
Lodges, and was also a member of the Ma- 
sonic Veterans of New York. He was a 
member of the Jersey City and Carteret 
clubs in Jersey City, and of the Lawyers' 
and Sullivan County clubs in New York, 
and a member of the Metropolitan Museum 
of Art. 

In June, 1888, he was appointed by the 
late Manning M. Knapp, then a Justice of 
the Supreme Court, as one of the Hudson 
County Park Commissioners, and was 
elected President of the Board, which po- 
sition he retained as long as the board con- 
tinued in existence. He was afterward one 
of the Commissioners of Adjustment, hav- 
ing been appointed by Judge Werts in 1892, 
to succeed William Muirhead, deceased. He 
was President of the Fayetteville Water, 
Light and Power Company, of North Caro- 
lina, the Jersey City Chain Works, the Port 
Richmond and Bergen Point Ferry Com- 
pany, and the Millstone and New Bruns- 
wick Railroad Company, a director or trus- 
tee in a large number of corporations, and 
receiver for several companies. 



FRANK P. LAUGHLIN 

NEWARK 



FRANK P. LAUGHLIN was born at 
Chatham, New Jersey, in 1857. His 
parents were Charles D. and Johanna P. 
(Day) Laughlin, both natives of Chatham, 
New Jersey. His father was a successful 
farmer and was highly esteemed in the 
community. The son acquired his educa- 
tion in the public schools of Chatham. Af- 
ter finishing his schooling he removed to 
Newark and learned the carpenter and 



joiners trade, later becoming a success- 
ful contractor and builder, in which busi- 
ness he is still actively engaged. 

He is a Republican in politics and an im- 
portant factor in the councils of his party, 
especially in the Tenth Ward, where he has 
been a resident for many years and from 
which he was elected a member of the 
Board of Aldermen, to serve from 1903 to 
1905 (two terms). He has also served on 



BIOGRAPHICAL CYCLOPEDIA 



255 



important committees, among which is the 
Construction and Alteration of Buildings 
Committee. He is a member of the East 
End Republican Club, Republican Indian 
League and of various other social and ]k)- 
litical organizations. 

Mr. Laughlin married Amelia Flammer, 



daughter of John A. and Christina Flam- 
mer, who are ok! and respectable residents 
of the Tenth Ward of Xewark. They have 
three sons: Franklin, who is engaged in 
business with his father, Charles John, and 
Frank Edward. 



HUGH PATRICK RODEN, M. D. 

NEWARK 



HUGH PATRICK RODEN, M. D., 
of Xewark, was born in Wednesbury, 
England, June 13, 1845, his parents being 
George Roden and Rachel Patrick. On 
the maternal side he is descended from the 
Patricks now holding property in Ayrshire, 
Scotland. They settled and held office 
about the monastery of Kilwinning long 
prior to the Reformation. Charters and 
deeds of the abbey property are attested by 
John Patrick as early as 1459. A portion 
of the family, during the reign of James 
VI., accompanied Hugh Montgomery, of 
Broadstarre, to the North of Ireland and 
settled near Belfast, where their descend- 
ants still possess considerable property. It 
is from this branch tliat Dr. Roden is de- 
scended. His great-grandfather, Hugh 
Patrick, engaged in business in Belfast. He 
left one son, Hugh Patrick. Robert, sec- 
ontl son. an architect, immigrated to New 
York in 1797. William, the third son, a 
merchant, immigrated to Pittsburgh, Penn- 
sylvania, in 1798, and had issue Robert, a 
banker, of Pittburgh ; John, a farmer ; .An- 
drew, a physician ; and Wallace, a banker. 
Hugh, the fourth son, a surgeon, had is- 
sue: Robert, a surgeon, of Silverwelhouse, 
Bolton-le-Moor, England ; Hugh, chemist, 
of Golflen Square, Lonflon ; George, a den- 
tist; John, J. R.. M. D.. of Belleville. Il- 
linois; Andrew, a jeweler: Rachel, wife of 
George Roden, of Xewark, New Jersey ; 
Agnes, wife of John Halbirnee, M. D., of 
Bath. England ; Dora, deceased ; and Jean- 



ette, wife of Richard Boatman, M. D., of 
Arkansas. Andrew, fifth son, was tutor in 
Queens College, Belfast, Ireland. James 
Patrick, sixth son, journalist of New Phil- 
adelphia, Ohio, had issue : Andrew Patrick ; 
James, attorney and County Judge ; Abra- 
ham , State Senator; Rachel (Mrs. Mc- 
Farland I ; Kate, wife of the Honorable Jo- 
seph Medill, of Chicago; and Anna, wife 
of John Moflfat, of New Philadelphia, 
Oliio. Hugh Patrick, great-grandfather of 
Dr. Roden, had two brothers who emi- 
grated to Virginia about 1755, and mem- 
bers of this family still reside in Patrick 
County in that State. 

In 1861 Dr. Hugh P. Roden enlisted in 
the Union Army in the Seventh New Jer- 
sey Volunteer Infantry, which formed a 
part of Hooker's Division. He participated 
in the battles of the .Army of the Potomac 
and was honorably discharged in 1864. 
When in his twentieth year Dr. Roden 
went to St. Louis, Missouri, where he com- 
menced the study of medicine with his 
uncle. Dr. J. J. R. Patrick. He was gradu- 
ated from the Missouri Medical College, 
St. Louis, in 1870, with the degree of M. 
D., and soon afterward came to Newark, 
where he has built up a large and success- 
ful practice, becoming one of the prominent 
l)hysicians of that city. He served as Sec- 
retary of the Board of Pension Examiners 
under President Harrison, was a member 
of the Newark Board of Education for a 
time, and is a member of the Essex County 



256 



BIOGRAPHICAL CYCLOPEDIA 



Medical Society and of Lincoln Post, 
Grand Army Republic, of Newark. He 
is also a Royal Arch Mason, President of 



the Board of Pension Examiners, and a 
member of the Medical Staff of St. James 
Hospital. 



HENRY SCHREITMUELLER 

NEWARK 



HENRY SCHREITMUELLER, one 
of the best known men allied with the 
building and construction interests of East- 
ern New Jersey, was born October 4, i860, 
in the Ortschaft of Diedesheim, Oberamt 
of Moesbach, in Baden, Germany. He is a 
son of Andreas Schreitmueller and Sophia 
Beck, and is descended through both par- 
ents from old and respected German line- 
age. His father was a weaver by trade and 
pursued that calling for many years, after 
which he was given a government appoint- 
ment as a keeper of the forests, a position 
which he filled for more than a quarter of 
a century, at the end of which period he 
was retired on a pension from the gov- 
ernment. He died at a ripe old age in 
1891, his wife having preceded him in 1882. 
The couple were the parents of fifteen chil- 
dren, of whom the following reached ma- 
ture years : Bernhard, who is married and 
makes his home at Guedesheim, Baden ; 
Andreas, who is married and engaged in 
the building stone business at Guedesheim ; 
John, who is married and resides at Wol- 
terdingen, in the district of Donau- 
Eshingen, Baden ; Mary, who is married 
and lives at Mertelstein, Baden, her hus- 
band being Ignaz Bernauer, who was a wid- 
ower with six children at the time of their 
marriage, by which union seventeen more 
children were added to the family group; 
Kilian, who came to the United States and 
makes his home in Newark, New Jersey, 
with his wife and four children; Henry, the 
subject of this sketch, and Martin, a loco- 
motive engineer, residing in Carlsruhe, Ba- 
den. 

Henry Schreitmueller received his pre- 



liminary education in the schools of his na- 
tive land and later attended the School of 
Technique in Moesbach for some time. Be- 
ing desirous of trying his fortune in the 
LTnited States, he determined to sail for 
this country before attaining his twenty- 
first birthday, as at that time he would 
be eligible for military service. He ac- 
cordingly left home on March 9, 1881, sail- 
ing from Rotterdam for New York, in 
which latter city he arrived March 27. He 
immediately located in Newark, where he 
has since resided. He found employment 
in the service of M. Mayer & Son, stone 
cutters, of that city, with which concern he 
remained until 1891, a period of eleven 
years, during which he acquired a thor- 
oughly practical knowledge of the stone 
business in all its varied phases. 

Forming a partnership with Frank Au- 
lenbach under the firm name of Schreit- 
mueller & Aulenbach, he embarked in the 
building and flag stone trade in Newark, 
the venture meeting with encouragement 
from the outset. The new firm's wise and 
prudent management made the enterprise 
a successful one, and they remained asso- 
ciated until 1895, in which year the partner- 
ship was dissolved by mutual consent, Mr. 
Schreitmueller continuing in the business, 
which he has since conducted. He is an 
able business man, upright and honest, and 
his methods of doing business were of an 
honorable type that appealed to his patrons 
He won an enviable standing in his own 
line and no man allied with the building 
and construction trades of Newark is more 
respected than he. 

His political support is given the Re- 



BIOGRAPHICAL CYCLOPEDIA 



257 



publican party and he has been elected for 
five consecutive times to a seat in the New- 
ark Board of Aldermen, being the first Re- 
publican elected in the Fourteenth Ward 
of that city to Aldermanic honors since the 
change of ward lines. Mr. Sclireitmueller 
and his family are communicants in St. 
Peter's Roman Catholic Church, of New- 
ark, and he is a liberal contributor to 
church and charitable enterprises. He is 
a member of the Catholic Benevolent Le- 
gion, of Newark, and holds membership 
also in the Builders' Association of that 
city and the United German Schuetzenbund 
of New Jersey. He is public spirited to a 
pronounced degree, and he is at all times 
ready to lend his active co-operation to any 
movement that is calculated to advance the 



welfare of the community at large or to 
promote its material interests. He is the 
type of man who benefits a city by his 
citizenship, and he enjoys the regard and 
confidence of a wide circle of friends and 
acquaintances. 

Mr. Schreitmueller married April i, 
1881, in St. Benedict's Roman Catholic 
Church, Newark, Eva Frederick, who was 
born March 24, i860. She was a daughter 
of Jacob Frederick and Mary Ann Schoen- 
lebe. Five children were born to Mr. and 
Mrs. Schreitmueller, namely, John, who 
was born August 6, 1885; Charles, who 
was born January 3, 1888; Josephine, who 
was born December 23, 1890; Catherine, 
who was born November 6, 1892 ; and 
Lena, who was bom August 17, 1896. 



ALBERT FREY, M. 

NEWARK 



D. 



ALBERT FREY was born in Newark, 
New Jersey, where he still resides, 
June 24, 1863, and is the son of Allicrt 
and Josephine (Kipp) Frey. His father 
was a native of Carlsruhe, Baden, Ger- 
many, born there in 1818; his mother was 
born in 1827. The family is of royal de- 
scent, the great-grandfather being one of 
the founders of Carlsruhe. Albert Frey, 
Sr., was a merchant in Germany and a 
loyal citizen during the Revolution of 1848. 
He came to the United States in 1849, lo- 
cating in New York. Accepting a position 
with the well-known firm of Lord & Tay- 
lor, lie remained there until 185 1, when he 
removed to Newark, New Jersey, and be- 
came associated witii Edward Hali)acli & 
Son in their gold and silver smelting and 
refining works, now the Balbach .Smelting 
and Refining Company. He continued that 
connection until lii> death, in 1873, and the 
success of the firm was largely due to his 
energy and ability. He was a member of 
the Newark Lodge, No. 7, Free and Ac- 



cepted Masons, and a devout adherent of 
the Lutheran Church. His wife was also 
a native of Carlsruhe, and survived him 
until September 4, 1890. They were the 
parents of five children : Josephine, now 
tlie wife of F'rancis B. Chedsey, of New 
York City; Louise, who married Martin 
Rilke, of Germany; Ida, the widow of C. 
VV. Sudmacher, of Germany ; Katie, the 
widow of W. H. Erb, of Newark; and Dr. 
Albert Frey. 

Dr. Frey received his early education 
in a private German school on (ireen 
street, Newark, from wliicli he was gradu- 
ated in 1873. He then went to Germany 
and attended the Real Gymnasium of 
Carlsruhe, a .scientific college, where he 
l)ursued his studies for three years, at the 
end of which he went to Muenchcn-Glad- 
bach and there entered the gymnasium, 
graduating in 1880. Returning to Amer- 
ica, he entered r'hili])s ,\cademy in And- 
over, Massachusetts, from which he was 
graduated in 1881. In that year he en- 



258 



BIOGRAPHICAL CYCLOPEDIA 



tered Yale College, but finished only the 
course of the freshman class. In 1882 he 
attended both the College of Pharmacy and 
the College of Physicians and Surgeons, 
New York City, pursuing his studies in 
the latter institution until 1884, when he 
once more visited Germany and entered the 
University of Bonn, remaining there about 
a year. 

Upon his return to this country, in 1885, 
he became associated with Professor Wil- 
liam H. Porter, of the Post Graduate 
Medical School in New York City, taking 
charge of the pathological laboratory and 
assisting in conducting post-mortem ex- 
aminations in the city department of 
Bellevue Hospital. At the same time he 
attended the College of Physicians and 
Surgeons, graduating therefrom in 1888. 
He remained a year longer with Professor 
Porter, adding to his technical knowledge 
by assuming charge of one of the first 
bacteriological laboratories in New York. 
In 1889 he located in Newark, and there 
entered upon the active practice of his pro- 
fession, gaining the distinction of being the 
first physician in New Jersey to use an- 
titoxin for the cure of diphtheria. He has 
given much attention to the diseases of 



children. He is also interested in surgery, 
and devotes a large portion of his time to 
increasing his knowledge in that important 
branch of medicine. He is a member of 
the National, State, and Essex District 
Medical Societies, and was secretary of 
the old Newark Medical Association. 

He is affiliated with the Masonic fra- 
ternity, his membership being in Newark 
Lodge, No. 7, Free and Accepted Masons, 
LTnion Chapter, No. 7, Royal Arch Masons 
and Kane Council, No. 3, R. and S. M. 
In his religious faith he is a Lutheran. He 
also holds the position of medical examiner 
for the Connecticut General Life Insur- 
ance Company of Hartford, Connecticut; 
medical examiner of the Western Travel- 
lers' Accident Association and surgeon for 
the Automobile Club of America ; and he 
was commissioner of Public Schools of the 
Sixth Ward in Newark for a period of 
two years. 

Dr. Frey married on December 10, 1884, 
Louise Jung, a native of Germany. They 
have had three children : Irmengard El- 
friede Josephine (who died of scarlet fever 
at the age of three years and seven 
months), Ottmar Wedekind Rudolph, and 
Millie. 



WILLIAM EUGENE TURTON 



NEWARK 



WILLIAM EUGENE TURTON, 
one of the successful practicing law- 
yers of Essex county, New Jersey, was 
born in Newark, November 13, 1875. He 
is the son of John Turton and Catharine 
Buchanan, his mother being a daughter of 
the late Patrick Buchanan, of New York. 
Mr. Turton was educated in the public 
schools of his native city and under private 
instruction, subsequently entering Colum- 
bia Law School, New York, from which 
he was graduated in the class of 1903. In 
the meantime he was a law student in the 



office of A. Q. Keasbey & Sons, in Newark, 
exhibiting a marked aptitude for his 
chosen profession from the very outset. He 
was admitted to the bar of New Jersey as 
an attorney in November, 1903, and as a 
counselor in February, 1908. Establishing 
himself in practice in Newark, Mr. Turton 
speedily demonstrated his ability and he has 
built up a general clientile of an extended 
and influential character that speaks 
volumes for the repute in which he is held 
by those familiar with his qualifications. 
He has figured in the New Jersey courts in 



BIOGRAPHICAL CYCLOPEDIA 



259 



some very important litigation, in every in- 
stance acquitting himself with high credit. 
Mr. Turton is a Republican politically. 
He takes an active and valuable part in the 
campaigns of his party and is a member 
of the Republican Central Committee for 
the Irvington section of Essex county, be- 
ing the Recorder of that town. He holds 
membership in the Lawyers' Club of Essex 
County, the North End Club of Newark, 
the Newark Board of Trade, and the Road 
Horse Association. He is a Free and Ac- 



cepted Mason, belonging to St. Albans 
Lodge No. 68, and is prominent in the In- 
dependent Order of Odd Fellows as a 
member of Lucerne Lodge No. 181, of 
Newark. He is also an honorary member 
of the \'eterans' Association. He is popu- 
lar among his friends and clients, and is a 
gentleman of exceptionally broad mind and 
high attainments. Mr. Turton was mar- 
ried April 5, 1904, to Mabel Daw.son, 
daughter of Thomas W. Dawson, of New- 
ark. 



RICHARD STEVENS 

HOBOKEN 



RICHARD STEVENS, one of the rep- 
resentative men of Hudson county. 
New Jersey, and a member of the famous 
old Stevens family of Hoboken, a review 
of which appears in the sketch of his older 
brother. Colonel Edwin A. Stevens, was 
born in Paris, France, May 23, 1868, being 
a son of Edwin Augustus Stevens and 
Martha Bayard Dodd. He received his 
education at St. Paul's School, Concord, 
New Hampshire, supplemented by a course 
at the Columbia College School of Arts, 
from which he was graduated in 1890 with 
the degree of Bachelor of Arts. Subse- 
quently entering the New York Law 
School, he was graduated from that insti- 
tution in 1893, being admitted to the New 
Jersey bar that same year as an attorney. 
He became a member of the law firm of 
Besson, Stevens & Lewis, with offices at 
No. I Newark street, Hoboken, but never 
practiced his profession extensively, as 
much of his time was occupied in aiding in 
the management of the large and important 
Stevens family estate, known as the Ho- 
boken Land and Improvement Company, of 
which he is vice-president and a director. 
He is also a director of the First National 
Bank of Hoboken. is vice-president of the 
West Shore Railroad Company, and was 



for a time the vice-president of the High- 
land Trust Company, from which latter re- 
sponsibility he resigned. His marked ex- 
ecutive ability and sound judgment enabled 
iiini to render valuable service to all these 
interests, his legal knowledge proving bene- 
ficial in the same connection. 

Nominally Mr. Stevens is a Democrat in 
his ])oIitical jirinciples but in reality is an 
iudepi'iident in action, giving his support 
to those men and measures best calculated 
to advance the public welfare, irrespective 
of mere [^artisan considerations. While he 
has never joined the National Guard of his 
State, he takes a warm interest in military 
niattcrs and for fifteen years has served 
as the head major of a military company 
ipf young men, consisting of about eighty 
members and known as the Stevens Bat- 
talion, the object of the organization be- 
ing to give young men an ojijtortunity to 
spend their evenings profitably, to gratify 
a taste for military life and to secure the 
advantages that invaribly follow the prac- 
tice of military restraint. Mr. Stevens built 
a small armory in Hoboken for the use of 
the battalion and in other ways has demon- 
strated iiis friendly feelings for the organi- 
zation and its purposes. 

Mr. Stevens hold membership in the 



26o 



BIOGRAPHICAL CYCLOPEDIA 



Union Club, of New York, the University 
Club, of New York, the Racket and Tennis 
Club, of New York, the New York Ath- 
letic Chib, the New York Yacht Club, the 
Columbia Club, of Hoboken, and the Whip- 
pany River Club, of Morristown, New Jer- 
sey. He is an Episcopalian in his religious 
faith and a member of Holy Innocents Pro- 
testant Episcopal Church, of Hoboken. 
He has always been active in benevolent 
work and philanthropic endeavor, being 
treasurer of the State Charity Aid, Hud- 
son County Branch, and serving in a like 
capacity for Christ Hospital, Jersey City, 
of which institution he is also a member of 
the Executive Committee. He is treasurer 
of the Church of the Holy Innocents and of 
Christ Church Home, at South Amboy, 
New Jersey. 

In 1904 Mr. Stevens was appointed Pro- 
bation Officer of Hudson County by the 
Judge of the Common Pleas of that county, 
since which year a great deal of his time 
has been spent in the work connected with 
that office, which carries with it much relat- 
ing to the subject of Prison Reform. As 
a member of the State Charity Aid, he has 
visited various State and county institu- 
tions, such as prisons, alms houses, insane 
asylums and the like, and he is interested in 
all legislation affecting those institutions. 
As Probation Officer he has been brought 



in close contact with the criminal courts, 
at the sessions of which his duties require 
him to be present, and from the very out- 
set he has performed the peculiar functions 
of his position with intelligence, fidelity to 
the public interests, and notable efficiency. 

Mr. Stevens has always been intensely 
fond out outdoor sports, especially lawn 
tennis, in which he held the championship 
of New Jersey for six years and for three 
years was ranked as one of the ten lead- 
ing players in the United States. He is at 
this time( 1909) the treasurer of the 
United States Lawn Tennis Association 
and a member of the Executive Committee 
of that organization. He has also played 
polo as a member of the Somerset Coun- 
ty Club, has proved his proficiency in 
hockey as well, and won the championship 
of the New York Athletic Club in the 125- 
pounds wrestling contest. He has followed 
the hounds as a member of the Essex 
County Hunt Club, and delights in healthy 
sports of every kind. He is popular in 
social life and esteemed in business circles. 
He was married in Hoboken, November 
II, 1893, to Elsie C. Stevens, his second 
cousin, daughter of Francis Bowes Ste- 
vens and Elizabeth C. Harris. To this 
union have been born four children, name- 
ly: Elizabeth C, 1896; Caroline B., iSgf): 
Dorothy P., 1902 ; and Richard, Jr., 1905. 



PAUL WILLIAM RODER 

NEWARK 



PAUL WILLIAM RODER, one of the 
best known lawyers of Newark, was 
born in Basle, Switzerland, May 17, 1852, 
his parents being Charles and Anna 
(Guertler) Roder. The family moved 
from Basle to Luzerne, Switzerland, and in 
1866 came to America, settling in Newark. 
In 1868, the father, Charles Roder, died 
and the support of the widowed mother, 
two younger brothers and a sister fell upon 



the eldest son, the subject of this sketch. 
For five years he worked in a factory, tak- 
ing care of the family, and in the meantime 
studying to fit himself for active life. Hav- 
ing had from early youth a strong desire 
to enter journalism, he became attached to 
the Nczvarker Post. When that paper dis- 
continued publication, he became a mem- 
ber of the staff of the New Jersey Frei 
Zcitung, then under the management of its 



BIOGRAPHICAL CYCLOPEDIA 



261 



founder, the late Benedict Prietli, and in 
a few years became city editor of that pa- 
per, and also a member of the editorial 
staff of the New York Staats Zcitung, 
where he remained until 1881. 

Although Mr. Roder's journalistic work 
kept him busy he took up the study of law 
under the late Judge Caleb S. Titsworth, 
and at the same time entered the Law De- 
partment of Columbia College, from wliich 
he was graduated in 1882. The same year 
he was appointed Judge of the first Crim- 
inal Court of Newark, which position he 
resigned to become Tax Commissioner, an 
office which he filled with ability and satis- 
faction for several years. He was ad- 
mitted to the New Jersey bar in February, 



1884, and from the first has enjoyed a large 
and successful practice. He was a member 
of the Board of Education of the City of 
Newark for a period of four years, 1880 
to 1884, representing the old Thirteenth 
Ward. He was chairman of the Commit- 
tee on Evening Schools and the originator 
of the free evening drawing school, from 
which thousands of scholars have since 
graduated. This school is now one of 
Newark's greatest institutions. He mar- 
ried. May 28, 1877, Marie .Vntoinette Voigt 
and has three children : .Anna Antoinette, 
born March 5, 1878; Paul Garfield, now a 
practicing lawyer with his father, born Feb- 
ruary 5, 1 88 1, and Walter Lincoln, born 
January 9, 1890. 



EUGENE FRANCIS KINKEAD 

JERSKY CITY 



EUGENE FRANCIS KINKEAD, a 
leading man of affairs in Jersey City, 
whose public spirit as a citizen and broad- 
minded policies as an official have been to 
the general good of the community, was 
born in Ireland in 1876. being the son of 
Thomas C. and Honora Kinkead. The 
son received an excellent education, being 
graduated from Seton Hall College with 
the degree of Bachelor of Arts. His career 
has been most successful. Taken into the 
wholesale grocery house of his father, con- 
ducted under the name of T. C. Kinkead, 
in Jersey City, he displayed a natural ai)ti- 
tude for the business from the very begin- 
ning and was not long in mastering its 
every detail. He was finally made man- 
ager of the enterprise, in which responsible 
capacity he proved equal to its demands. 
I'nder his progressive and energetic direc- 
tion the undertaking has been further de- 
veloped and its large and important trade 
materially augmented. 

Mr. Kinkead is a man of ideas and ex- 
ecutive ability, untiring, sound in judgment, 



and peculiarly accurate in foresight. He 
possesses every needed qualification for ad- 
ministering the affairs of such an estab- 
lishment as the house founded by his fath- 
er, and much of its later success has been 
directly due to the efforts put forth in its 
behalf by its able young manager. He 
stands high in New Jersey mercantile cir- 
cles as one of the leading and most influ- 
ential representatives of those interests, and 
he has the warm esteem and thorough con- 
fidence of every one with whom he has ever 
held relations. He has other interests be- 
sides those of the grocery house with 
which he is identified, being connected with 
the Mercantile Trust Company of Jersey 
City and the New Jersey Car .Advertising 
Company, of which latter enterprise he is 
the president. The New Jersey Car .Ad- 
vertising Company has developed into an 
important factor in the advertising field of 
its State, thanks to the wisdom with which 
its destinies have been gtiidcd by the hand 
and brain of Mr. Kinkead, who has infused 



262 



BIOGRAPHICAL CYCLOPEDIA 



into the project a spirit of progressiveness 
and activity that could not fail to bear 
fruit and he has made the concern one of 
the most attractive and profitable mediums 
of judicious advertising to be anywhere 
found. 

A Democrat in his political opinions and 
affiliations, Mr. Kinkead has always shown 
an active interest in his party's welfare and 
his services in its behalf were recognized 
by the organization when he was made its 
nominee for Alderman in his ward. Elect- 
ed to the office, he was further honored by 
being chosen as president of the board. As 
presiding officer of the board, his public 
work has been of a notable and praise- 
worthy character. He fathered the Civil 
Service resolution placing city employees 



beyond the reach of political control, a non- 
partisan measure that gained him the 
thanks of every one desirous of good local 
government irrespective of mere partisan 
considerations. 

A lover of athletics and an advocate of 
all clean sports, Mr. Kinkead has always 
felt a keen interest in the subject of parks 
and playgrounds and he gave to Jersey City 
its first out-door gymnasium and play- 
ground, an achievement for which he will 
long be greatly remembered by those bene- 
fited thereby. He holds membership in St. 
Joseph's Roman Catholic Church of Jersey 
City and is one of the influential spirits of 
that congregation. He is popular alike in 
social and business life, and possesses a 
host of friends among all classes. 



WILLIAM JEROME DAVIS 

HARRISON 



WILLIAM JEROME DAVIS, promi- 
nent as a member of the New Jer- 
sey bar and a representative citizen of Har- 
rison in that State, is descended from two 
of New Jersey's oldest and most honored 
families, Davis and Sandford. One of 
the earliest members of the Davis family of 
New Jersey was Jacobie Davis, who re- 
sided in Asbury, Hunterdon County, where 
his son, Aaron, was born October 23, 1775. 
Jacobie Davis was the great-great-grand- 
father of William Jerome Davis. His son, 
Aaron Davis, the great-grandfather of Wil- 
liam J. Davis, was a cousin of William 
Davis, who in 1771 was the owner of all 
the territory where the village of Arlington, 
in Kearney township, Hudson County, now 
stands. Aaron Davis, married, July 10, 
1796, Molly (Mary) Williamson, daughter 
of Captain Williamson, an extensive slave 
holder; she was born July 15, 1776. The 
children of Aaron and Mary (Williamson) 
Davis were Rebecca, Eliza, Rebecca (2d), 



Mark W., Harriet, Charles R., John and 
John A. Davis. 

Aaron Davis resided in Hope, Warren 
County, New Jersey, where his death oc- 
curred July 27, 1839, in his sixty-fourth 
year. His son, Mark W. Davis, the grand- 
father of William J. Davis, was born in 
Hope township, Warren County, March 4, 
1804, and he made that his residence until 
he removed to Harrison township, Hudson 
County, where he purchased a large farm 
and entered into the cattle business, also 
conducting a hotel, which was a noted stop- 
ping place for Western drovers. He mar- 
ried, February 9, 1826, Ann Reed, of the 
same township, by whom he had three chil- 
dren, Irene M., who became Mrs. George 
W. Cross, Hiram W., of whom presently, 
and Jerome B. Davis. Through Joseph 
Davis, who was born in 1716, and other 
issue of Caleb Davis who married Ruth 
Bruen, daughter of Joseph Bruen, the Da- 
vis family of to-day is able to trace its 
lineage, through the Bruens, to some of 




'^/2C€^^^^i^J^ ^a^^^ 



BIOGR.\PHICAL CYCLOPEDIA 



263 



the best, noblest and even royal blood of 
ancient England and France. This line is 
so interesting in itself as to warrent pre- 
senting here. 

Beginning with Ccdric, who invaded 
England in 495 and died 534. the descent 
runs as follows. Creoda, Cyneric, Ceawlin, 
Cuthwine, Cutha, Ceowald. Cenred, Inglid, 
who died in 718; Eoppa, Eafa, Eadimund. 
Egbert, Ethelwulf, who died in 857; and 
Alfred the Great, King of England, who 
was born in 849 and died in 901. Alfred's 
daughter, Elfrida, was married to Baldwin 
II, the Bald, who was descended in a direct 
line from Pepin the Old, of France, born 
about 560 and died in 639. Pepin was the 
father of Begga, born in 638, who had Pe- 
])in le Gros, born about 650 and died in 714. 
Pepin le Gros's famous son, Charles Mar- 
tel, born about 690 and died in 741, was 
the father of Pepin the Short, born about 
715 and died in September, 768, and the 
grandfather of the great monarch, Charle- 
magne, who was born April 2, 742, and 
died January 28, 814. Charlemagne's son, 
Louis le Debonnaire, born in 778 and died 
June 20, 840, was the father of Charles II 
the Bald, who was bom in 823 and died in 
October, 877. The latter's daughter, Ju- 
dith, became the wife of Baldwin I, who 
died in 877, and the mother of Baldwin II 
the Bald, who, as noted, married Alfred the 
Great's daughter, Elfrida. 

Arnolf I the Old, son of Baldwin II and 
Elfrida, was born before 874 and died 
March 27, 964, becoming the father of 
Baldwin III, who died January 17, 961, the 
latter's son, Arnolf II the Young, son of 
Baldwin III, dying March 30, 989, left a 
son, Baldwin I\', known as Pulchra Barba 
(Comely Beard), who died May 10, 1036. 
Comely Beard's son, Baldwin \', who died 
September i, 1067, had a daugliter, Matil- 
da, who married William the Conqueror, 
born November 2, 1053, and died Septem- 
ber 9, 1087. Their daughter, Adela, be- 
came the wife of Stephen de Blois, who 
was born in 1081 and died in iioi, and 
their son, William de Blois, adopted his 



wife's name, de Sulli, his daughter, Mar- 
garet de Sulli, marrying Henry de Eu, who 
was horn before 1084 and died July 12, 
1 140. The last named couple had a son, 
John de Eu, born before 1120 and died 
1 170, whose son, Henry de Eu, was born 
before 11 50 and died in 1183. Alix, daugh- 
ter of Henry de Eu, married Ralph de Ex- 
odun, who was born before 1172 and died 
in 1219. Their daughter. Matilde, married 
Humphrey de Bohun, who died September 
24, 1275, and whose daughter. Alice, be- 
came the wife of Ralph de Tony. Alice, 
daughter of Ralph de Tony, was born in 
1285 and died in 1325. She married Guy 
de Beauchamp, who was born in 1272 and 
died August 12, 13 15. They had a daugh- 
ter, Maud de Beauchamp, who married 
Geoffrey de Say, born in 1305 and died 
June 26, 1356. Idonea de Say, daughter of 
Geoffrey de Say, married Sir John de Clin- 
ton, who was born in 1323 and died in 
1397, their daughter, Margaret Qinton. 
marrying Sir Baldwin de Montfort. who 
died about 1386, leaving a son, Sir William 
who died December 31, 1453. 

Robert de Montfort, son of Sir William 
de Montfort, had a daughter, Katherine 
de Montfort, who married George Booth, 
who died in 1483, and their son. Sir Wil- 
liam Booth, died November 9, 1519. Jane 
Booth, daughter of Sir William Booth, 
married Thomas Holford. who died Sep- 
tember 24. 1569, and had a daughter. Dor- 
othy Holford, who married John Bruyn. 
who was born in 15 10 and died May 14. 
1587. leaving a son. John Bruyn or Brucn. 
who was born in 15(10 and died January 18, 
1625. Obadiah Brucn. son of the second 
John Bruen, was born in Tfio6 and had a 
son, John Brucn, born in 1646, whose son. 
Joseph Bruen, born in 1667, was the father 
of Ruth Bruen, wife of Caleb Davis. 

It is through his mother, Emma L. (San- 
ford) Davis that William Jerome Davis is 
a direct descendant from Captain William 
Sandford. founder of the New Jersey 
branch of the family of Sandford. The 
family bearing the name in different forms 



264 



BIOGRAPHICAL CYCLOPEDIA 



as Sontford, Sonforde, Sanford or Sand- 
ford, came to England with William the 
Conqueror, and the name of its founder 
occurs in every known copy of the "Bat- 
tle Abbey Roll." The estate was confis- 
cated by Parliament, and the representa- 
tives of the family came to America. Cap- 
tain Sand ford came from Barbadoes, West 
Indies, in the seventeeth century and on 
July 4, 1688, located in Union, New Jersey, 
settling on a purchase estimated to contain 
five thousand three hundred and eight 
acres of up land and ten thousand acres of 
meadow. He had enough influence to give 
the name of New Barbadoes to the town- 
ship, in which Hackensack, the capital of 
the county, is situated. He lived in New- 
ark in 1675 and was a member of the New- 
ark Council in 1681 and 1684. He must 
have owned considerable property and 
have erected a number of buildings at East 
Newark, now a part of Newark itself, for 
in 1680 his place was known as "Santfort," 
an English village opposite Milfort." Cap- 
tain Sandford came to this country in the 
interest of Stephen Kingsland, who owned 
large possessions in New Jersey. By his 
will, dated March 14, 1685, Kingsland gave 
one-third of his lands in New Jersey, con- 
sisting of about three thousand four hun- 
dred and two acres, to his nephew, Isaac 
Kingsland, the other two-thirds going to 
his children, John, Nathaniel, Isabella, wife 
of Henry Harding; Caroline, wife of John 
Barroe, Jr., Mary, wife of William Walley ; 
and Esther, wife of Henry Applethwaite. 

It will thus be seen that Captain Sand- 
ford, in addition to his own extended prop- 
erties, had important interests to look af- 
ter in acting for the Kingslands. By Isaac 
Kingsland's will, dated January i, 1697-9, 
Edmund Kingsland, his oldest son, re- 
ceived one-third of his plantation, about 
one thousand one hundred and thirty-four 
acres, part of which tract was sold by Ed- 
mund Kingsland, to Arent Schuyler, April 
20, 1710 for £330. By will, dated July 29, 
1741, and proved July 26, 1742, Edmund 
Kingsland gave to his son, William Kings- 



land three hundred acres next adoijning 
Schuyler's tract and also one-third of the 
meadow and one-third of the cedar swamp. 
His son, Edmund Roger Kingsland, re- 
ceived the remainder of his realty. This 
latter devise was burdened with the pay- 
ment of certain legacies and in case they 
were not paid within one year, then the 
property devised should go to his son, 
Isaac Kingsland, with the same burdens. 
The devisee refused to accept and on Sep- 
tember 10, 1743, Isaac Kingsland accepted 
the devise and by his will, dated March 5, 
1776, and proved August 23, 1783, gave to 
his son, Abraham Kingsland, one-half of 
all his lands and divided the remainder 
among his other children, Isaac, Joseph, 
Charles, Aaron, Sarah and Rachel Kings- 
land. John Kingsland, by will dated Au- 
gust 18, 1763, and proved August 10, 1768, 
gave the north half of his lands to his son, 
Richard Kingsland. The other half was 
divided among his children, Elizabeth, 
Hester, wife of Peter Butler; Edmund, and 
his grandson, John, son of Isaac Kings- 
land. 

Captain Sandford married March 27, 
1677, Sarah Wharton "on board the pink 
'Susan' in the river Surinam." He left all 
of his property to his widow Sarah. His 
children were Nedemia, Elizabeth, Grace, 
Katherine, William and Peregrine Sand- 
ford. By her will, dated June 8, 1708, and 
proved June 25, 1719, she gave to her 
daughter Catherine, wife of Johannis Van 
Emburgh, three hundred acres of wood- 
land and one hundred acres of meadow; 
and to Elizabeth, wife of James Davis, 
three hundred acres of land. To her son. 
Major William Sandford, she gave the 
farm of three hundred acres, with the 
meadow, for life, then to his son, William 
Sandford, in fee. He also received the res- 
idue of her lands. Major William Sand- 
ford married February i, 1696, Sarah 
Smith. They had several children, among 
them being Michael Sandford, who mar- 
ried Mary Dey. Another son, David Sand- 
ford, who was interred in the Belleville 



BIOGRAPHICAL CYCLOPEDIA 



265 



graveyard, Belleville, New Jersey, was the 
grandfather of William J. Davis, on the 
maternal side. 

By will dated February 24, 1732, and 
proved April 16, 1735, William Sandford, 
second of the name, gave to his son, Rich- 
ard Sandford one-half of the Cedar Swamp 
and the other half to his daughters, Fran- 
ces, Jennie and Anne Sandford. This Wil- 
liam Sandford, second, was baptized in No- 
vember, 1696, and died in 1750. By will 
dated February 22, 1749, William Sand- 
ford, third, gave to his only son, William 
Sandford, all his lands, consisting of three 
hundred acres, rough land, and one hun- 
dred and fifty acres of meadow. This was 
the farm mentioned in his grand-mother's 
will and in all probability lays where East 
Newark now is. Peregrine Sandford, son 
of Major William Sandford, by will dated 
November 6, 1740, and proved June 14, 
1750, gave his lands to his children, Enoch, 
William, Jane, Aggie and Elizabeth Sand- 
ford. 

It is interesting, also to note in tliis con- 
nection that a part of the Sandford tract, 
unquestionably the farm and meadow men- 
tioned in Sarah Sandford's will, was pur- 
chased by Colonel Peter Schuyler and 
thenceforth called Petersborough. By his 
will, dated March 21, 1761, and proved 
May 28, 1762, Schuyler gave this land to 
his only child, Catharine Schuyler, wife of 
.Archibald Kennedy, Earl of Casselis. Ken- 
nedy and his wife conveyed to James 
Duane, June 13, 1765, the farm on New 
Rarbadoes Neck (Petersborough) and two 
tracts near Secaucus, between the line of 
the Bergen lots and Pinhorne's Creek and 
Cromkill, as well as Colonel Schuyler's in- 
terest in the "commons" in trust for tiicm- 
selves. Duane reconveyed to them and to 
the survivor, June 15, 1765. The earl out- 
lived his wife and by will dated June 15, 
1765, left his property in America to his 
sons, John and Robert Kennedy. The in- 
terest of John Kennedy passed to Robert 
Kennedy, and the latter, in 1803, so'd t'lc 
tract where East Newark now is to Wil- 



liam Ilalsey, a lawyer of Newark now 
without a living representative of his name. 
It was then a part of what was known as 
"Kennedy's Farm." In 1804 the name was 
changed to "Lodi." Halsey laid out a part 
of his purchase into ninety building lots of 
at least one acre each. Arcnt Schuyler, by 
will dated December 17, 1724, and proved 
July 6, 1732, gave his lands on New Bar- 
badoes Neck to his son, John Schuyler, 
who left them to his son, Arent Schuyler, 
from whom they have descended to his 
grandchildren, Arent, Jacob R. Schuyler 
and others. 

Hiram W. Davis, son of Mark W. and 
Ann (Read) Davis, and the father of Wil- 
liam Jerome Davis, was born February 
0. 1829, in Hope township, Warren county. 
New Jersey, where his early boyhood was 
spent, and died in Harrison, August 22, 
1876. In 1839, when he was ten years old, 
he removed with his parents to Hudson 
County and there continued at school until 
]iis father constructed a plant for diving 
and wrecking, when the son joined with 
him in an effort to recover the lost steamer 
"Lexington," in which they were partially 
successful. On the completion of this en- 
terprise, young Davis resumed his studies 
for a time, in the meantime assisting his 
father in various undertakings and finding 
his time and attention greatly occupied 
with interests of a general character. The 
elder Davis had invested much of his sur- 
plus earnings in real estate, all of which 
was eventually inherited by the son, who 
became a man of affairs, the care of this 
estate absorbing his time and precluding 
the conducting of other operations, aside 
from the purchase and sale of real estate, 
in which field he gained distinction as a 
successful promoter. 

In 1873 Mr. Davis disposed of much of 
his land holdings to the East Newark Land 
Company, reserving certain holdings in 
East Newark and three acres in Harrison, 
now the family residence anfl formerly oc- 
cupied by his widow and children. On the 
first named tract is erected the Davis Mem- 



266 



BIOGRAPHICAL CYCLOPEDIA 



orial Church, in which Mr. Davis manifest- 
ed much interest and to which he made 
Hberal contributions. He was a member of 
the old Whig party, later becoming a Re- 
publican, his ultimate allegiance being to 
the principles of Democracy. He was an 
active worker in the field of politics, and 
he held the office of Freeholder for succes- 
sive terms during important periods. The 
county of Hudson is indebted to him for 
many valuable services. He was influential 
in obtaining a free bridge between his own 
and Essex counties, and he was also a 
member of the building committee for the 
erection of the Hudson County Peniten- 
tiary, taking an earnest and prominent part 
in the prosecution and completion of the 
work. He was one of the incorporators of 
the East Newark Gas Light Company, and 
active in other public enterprises that called 
for both executive ability and public spirit. 
He possessed a genial nature, was benevo- 
lent without ostentation, and enjoyed the 
esteem and confidence of the community 
throughout his life. He married, Novem- 
ber 25, 1851, Emma L. Sandford, daughter 
of David Sandford, of Hudson County. 
Their children are Mark W. ; Mary Celeste ; 
Annie E., wife of George L. Blake; Wil- 
liam Jerome, of whom presently; Mary 
Celeste (2d) ; Irene M., wife of Theodore 
Cuyler ; Noe, and Emma C, wife of Ed- 
ward Palmer. 

William Jerome Davis was born Novem- 
ber 9, 1858, in Harrison, New Jersey, 
where he still resides, although his interests 
extend far beyond the boundaries of his 
native place. He was educated in the 
Hackettstown Seminary, afterward enter- 
ing Yale College, of which he was a gradu- 
ate. After the completion of his studies, 
he entered the law office of the Honorable 
William Brinkerhofif, as a student and was 
admitted to the bar of New Jersey as an 
attorney in 1884, since which time he has 
practiced continuously in Harrison and Jer- 
sey City. He has proved successful as a 
lawyer and might have won high rank in 
that profession, so decided was his ability, 



but his business interests have branched out 
until to-day he is prominently identified in 
banking circles and has large interests in 
North Jersey. He was a director in and 
connected with several of the trolley lines 
of Essex and Hudson Counties, and is 
counsel for a number of manufacturing 
corporations. He is president of the Mar- 
tin Act Commissioners of the towns of 
Harrison and Kearney, and he is also a 
member of the Sinking Fund Commission- 
ers. He is one of the Commissioners ap- 
pointed by Governor Voorhees to consider 
the advantage of consolidating all the towns 
and cities in Hudson County into one large 
municipality. 

He has accomplished praiseworthy work 
in his county as Park Commissioner, being 
instrumental in having the public park act 
passed in the Legislature, enabling Hudson 
County to secure parks the same as Es- 
sex County. After a hard contest, the bill 
was passed with a referendum clause, 
which was carried by a large majority of 
the people. The act was taken into court 
and the Court of Errors and Appeals of 
New Jersey sustained it. Mr. Davis was 
appointed on the Board of Commissioners 
by the Honorable John A. Blair, and when 
the body organized he was chosen as Vice- 
President of the board and later its Presi- 
dent, which position he has since occupied. 
Under his progressive and able efforts and 
with the co-operation of the other members 
of the board, the system of Hudson Coun- 
ty parks is being pushed as rapidly as pos- 
sible and it is safe to say will, in the end, 
not be excelled by any other similar system 
in the country. Mr. Davis has also been 
appointed by Governor Fort to recommend 
to the Legislature of New Jersey a method 
of taxing trust companies and bank stocks 
of the State. 

He was one of the organizers of the 
West Hudson County Trust Company, 
which met with marked success in its 
operations and of which institution he is 
now the president. He was President of 



BIOGRAPHICAL CYCLOPEDIA 



267 



the East Newark Gas Light Company and 
the Hudson Electric Light Company, be- 
fore these two corporations were merged 
into the PubHc Service Corporation, and he 
is now counsel for several building and loan 
associations. He holds membership in the 
Union League Club and the Harrison and 
the Kearney Campaign Clubs. He has been 
described by a biographer as "a type of citi- 
zen that helps a community ; he takes part 
in local, State and National political affairs 
for no other reason than that he enjoys get- 



ting into the fight for what he thinks is best 
for the people. Notwithstanding his political 
activity, Mr. Davis has never sought an 
elective office, but, on the other hand, has 
brushed aside the earnest solicitations of 
his friends who have sought to have him 
run for Assembly and other offices." Mr. 
Davis has attended the last five Republican 
National Conventions as delegate or alter- 
nate. During national campaigns he has 
been at the head of the organization in 
West Hudson County. 



FREDERICK SEYMOUR 

EAST ORANGE 



FREDERICK SEYMOUR was born in 
Whitney's Point, New York, August 
2, 1856, the second son of George Whitfield 
and Mary Freeman Seymour. He stands in 
the eighth generation from Richard Sey- 
mour, — the first of that name in this coun- 
try and the progenitor of a distinguished 
family, — who came from England to Hart- 
ford, Connecticut, in 1639, and who died in 
Norwalk, Connecticut, at the residence of 
his son, Thomas Seymour. In the second 
generation in this country the family 
branched in such way that tlie late Horatio 
Seymour, of New York, Chief Justice 
Origen S. Seymour, of Connecticut, and 
the late Judge Edward W. Seymour, of 
Connecticut, are found in one line, the late 
Governor Thomas Seymour, of Connecti- 
cut, in another, and the subject of this 
sketch in still another. 

On his mother's side Mr. Seymour is de- 
scended from Edmund Freeman, his 
seventh lineal ancestor, who was admitted 
to the General Court at Plymouth, and to 
whom, with ten other immigrants, was 
granted liberty to choose a place for per- 
manent homes for themselves and their 
families. They selected the town of Sand- 
wich. Edmund Freeman was assistant to 
Governor Bradford for si.\ years, and died 



in 1682, leaving a daughter Alice and two 
sons, John and Edmund, both of whom 
married daughters of Thomas Prence, who 
was Governor of Plymouth Colony at that 
time. This Edmund had a son Edmund, 
born in 1655, who died in 1720, leaving a 
family of nine children, of whom the eld- 
est, Edmund, the fourth of that name, re- 
moved to Mansfield, Connecticut, where he 
died in 1766. He left a son Edmund, the 
fifth of that name, who was graduated 
from Harvard College in 1733, and died 
in JMansfield, Connecticut, in February, 
1800, leaving seven sons and a daughter, 
some of whom became distinguished in 
public life. One of these sons, Stephen 
Freeman, was the grandfather of the sub- 
ject of this sketch. He married Clarissa 
Thompson, daughter of Joseph Thompson, 
of Mansfield, Connecticut. 

Frederick Seymour was educated in the 
\\'hitney's Point High School, in Yale Col- 
lege in the class of 1881 in the academic 
dei)artment, and in the Columbia Law 
School. He was admitted to the bar in 
September, 1882, from which time to the 
present he has practiced law in the city of 
New York, achieving an enviable distinc- 
tion in corporation law and in contested lit- 
igation of the greatest moment. He has 



268 



BIOGRAPHICAL CYCLOPEDIA 



always taken a leading position at the bar, 
having the entire confidence and respect 
both of the bench and of his associates. 

In April, 1899, dissolving other asso- 
ciations, he, with his brother, John S. Sey- 
mour, of Washington and New York, and 
Eugene M. Harmon, of Cincinnati and 
New York, organized the law firm of Sey- 
mour, Seymour & Harmon. Upon Mr. 
Harmon's death in 1904, William A. Meg- 
rath, for many years the law adviser of 
the United States Patent Office, entered 
the firm. John S. Seymour and his asso- 
ciates brought to the firm an extended ex- 
perience in, and a comprehensive knowl- 
edge of, the law applicable to patent and 
trade-mark cases, as well as the technical 
and scientific skill and training required in 
its successful practice. He was United 
States Commissioner of Patents under the 
second Cleveland administration. 

Mr. Seymour married Julia C. Dikeman, 
only daughter of the late Nathan Dikeman, 
of Waterbury, Conn., and has three chil- 
dren: Helen, Margaret, and Frederick 



Seymour, Jr. He lives at No. 55 Prospect 
Street, Brick Church, East Orange, New 
Jersey, and is a patron of literature and ra- 
tional athleticism in the town. He is a 
member of the Essex County Country 
Club of Orange, the Civics and the Demo- 
cratic Clubs of East Orange, and the Law- 
years' Club of New York. He is a mem- 
ber of Hope Lodge, Free and Accepted 
Masons, of Orange Chapter, Royal Arch 
Masons, of Damascus Commandery, 
Knights Templar, of the Ancient Accepted 
Scottish Rite, and also of Grace Church, 
Orange. In connection with the Civics 
Club he has helped to maintain and put into 
practice the best traditions of American 
public life. He has been an active advocate 
of clean and patriotic politics, of rational 
and progressive humanity, and of the 
maintenance of representative institutions 
and self-government according to the teach- 
ings of the founders of the republic. In 
politics he has been a Democrat and an ad- 
vocate of tariff reform and of the gold 
standard of value. 



THE COBB FAMILY 

NEWARK 



THE name of Cobb so closely identified 
with the early iron industries founded 
in Essex County, New Jersey, at the begin- 
ning of the eighteenth century first appears 
in Massachusetts in connection with the 
same industry founded in Taunton, Ply- 
mouth Colony, in 1639. Already the Win- 
throp Company in Braintree had estab- 
lished a bloomery and forge having import- 
ed skilled workmen from Wales to oper- 
ate the works. In the absence of any cir- 
culating medium except wampum, and 
measures of Indian corn, a new medium 
was found in the manufactured iron and 
even the pig as it came from the bloomerj'. 
Plows and hoes were a prime necessity in 
the cultivation of Indian corn, the chief 



food of the colonists and the iron indus- 
try assumed an importance second to no 
other in the colony. 

At Two Mile river, near Taunton, the 
supply of iron ore appeared to be inex- 
haustible and the proprietors of that town 
at once set about to develop the mines. The 
proprietors of the first company organized 
in 1653-4, included twenty-three residents 
and proprietors of the town, and thirteenth 
on the list of subscribers was John Cobb, or 
Cob, as then written. Additional capital 
was furnished from Plymouth, Boston, 
Salem and Braintree in Massachusetts, and 
by Providence and Newport in Rhode Is- 
land. The product of the bloomeries and 
forges there established was transported 



BIOGRAPTTTCAL CYCLOPEDIA 



269 



by wagon to Boston and Salem and l)y 
small sloops to Providence, Newport and 
even to New York. This trade put Taun- 
ton in close touch with the Western world 
as it then existed and for the time the iron 
mines of Taunton were the gold mines of 
more favored Spanish America. The mines 
of Taunton were in charge of Henry and 
James Leonard and Ralph Russell. Cap- 
tain Thomas Cobb married a daughter of 
Tames Leonard and in this way the Cobbs 
became more firmly allied to the iron in- 
dustry and when the iron mines of Morris 
Count)', New Jersey, presented new fields 
of quickly acquired wealth, we find the 
Cobbs at Rockaway, East Jersey. The pro- 
genitor of these thrifty and enterprising 
colonists was Henry Cobb (q. v.). 

I. Henry Cobb, one of the "men of 
Kent" was born in County Kent, New 
London, England, in 1596. He was brought 
up in the established church, and when the 
non-conformist party took a stand against 
the religious intolerence that became more 
and more unbearable, young Cobb attended 
the meetings held by Lathrop and his fol- 
lowers in London and became a diciple of 
Congregationalism. He was not, however, 
of the twenty-four members, who, with 
their preacher Lathrop, were confined in the 
"foul and loathsome prisons" of London, 
but it was his privilege a few years after to 
welcome Lathrop to New England and help 
to organize for him a school in Scituate, 
Plymouth Colony. It is probable that he 
was a passenger on the ship "Anne" that 
reached the New England coast in 1629. 
He was at Plymouth that year and remain- 
ed in that town, — the oldest established in 
America, — up to 1633, when the Church of 
Plymouth gave him a letter of dismissal 
to Scituate which was common land of the 
colony and where a considerable body of 
settlers had located and stood in need of a 
church and preacher. 

A town government was organized l)y 
Cobb and his associates and incorporated 
by the General Court of Plymouth. July i, 
1633. The next year Mr. Lathrop arrived 



from London and was installed minister 
over tlie church organization and Henry 
Cobb was made senior deacon. This posi- 
tion marks the estimation in which he was 
held by his fellow Pilgrims. The town and 
church grew and prospered and, in 1638, 
he was dismissed to go to Barnstable and 
established a town and church government 
there, which was affected March 5, 1738. 
He was made ruling elder of this church 
and was thereafter known as Elder Cobb. 
Besides holding the highest office in the 
town and church, he was deputy to the 
General Court at Plymouth, 1645, 1647, 
1652, 1659, 1660 and 1661. 

He married, first, in Plymouth in April, 
1631, Patience Hurst, daughter of Deacon 
James and Catherine Hurst of that town 
and by her he had eight children ; of these 
the first three were born in Plymouth, the 
next two in Scituate and the others in 
Barnstable which became his permanent 
home and where he died in 1679, aged 
eighty-three years. The children were 
born in the following order: i. John (q. v.) 
June 27, 1632; 2. Edzvard (q. v.) 1633, 
3. James, January 14, 1634, married Sarah, 
daughter of James Lewis, December 26, 
1663, and died 1695; 4- ^fary- ^larch 24, 
1637, married Jonathan Dunham of Barn- 
stable, October 15, 1657; 5. Hannah, Oc- 
tober 5, 1639, married Edward Lewis, May 
9, 1681, and died January 17, 1736; 6. Pa- 
tience, March 19, 1641, married first, Rob- 
ert Parker in August. 1667, and second, 
Deacon William Crocker in 1686; 7. Gres- 
hom, January 10, 1645, married Hannah 
David, June 4, 1675, was beheaded by the 
Indians; 8. Eleazer, March 30, 1648. The 
mother of these children. Patience (Hurst) 
Cobb, died May 4. 1648. and Elder Cobb 
married as his second wife, Sarah Hinck- 
ley, daughter of Samuel and Sarah Hinck- 
ley, who were also tlie parents of Governor 
Thomas Hinckley. By this marriage Eld- 
er Cobb had eight children, all born in 
Braintree as follows: 9. Mehitable. Sep- 
tember I, 1652, died March 8, 1653; 10. 
Samuel, October 12, 1654, married Eliz- 



270 



BIOGRAPHICAL CYCLOPEDIA 



abeth, daughter of Richard Taylor, De- 
cember 20, 1680, died December 27, 1727; 
II. Sarah, January 15, 1658, died the 
same year; 12. Jonathan, April 10, 1660, 
married March I, 1683, Hope, daugh- 
ter of John Chipman and widow of John 
Hukins a Mayflower descendant; 13. Sarah 
(2), March 10, 1663, married Deacon 
Samuel Chipman, December 27, 1689; 14. 
Henry, September 5, 1665, married Lois, 
daughter of Joseph Hallett, April 10, 1690, 
and removed to Stonington, Connecticut 
Colony; 15. Mehitable, February 15, 1667, 
died young; 16. Experience, September, 
1 67 1, died young. 

II. John Cobb, eldest son of Henry and 
Patience (Hurst) Cobb, was born in Plym- 
outh, Plymouth Colony, January 7, 1632. 
He was brought up in Barnstable where he 
married, August 28, 1658, Martha Nelson, 
daughter of William Nelson, of Plymouth, 
and by her he had six children as follows, 
all born in Barnstable: i. John, August 
24, 1662, died October 8, 1727; married 
Rachel Soule, granddaughter of George 
Soule, a Mayflower passenger, 1620; 2. 
Samuel, 1663, settled in Tolland, Connecti- 
cut Colony, where he became very promi- 
nent in town and colonial affairs ; 3. Eliza- 
beth, 1664; 4. Israel, 1666; 5. Patience, 
August 10, 1668, married John Barett, of 
Middleburgh; 6. Ebenezer, August 9, 1671, 
married, first, Mercy Holmes, March 22, 
1694, and second, Mary Thomas, died in 
Kingston, Plymouth Colony, January 29, 
1752. The mother of these children, Mar- 
tha (Nelson) Cobb, died and her husband 
married as his second wife, in Taunton, 
June 13, 1676, Jane Woodward, of that 
place, and by her had : 7. Elisha, April 3, 
1679, married Lydia Ryder, February 4, 
1703; 8. James, July 20, 1682, married Pa- 
tience Holmes, July 21, 1705. 

He removed to Taunton in 1659, and was 
alloted thirty acres of land in the division 
of town lots, and he took oath of allegiance 
in 1659, as did Edward Cobb. On June 6, 
1668, John Cobb of Taunton, with thirty- 
five other settlers of Plymouth Colony pur- 



chased from Thomas Prence, Josiah Win- 
slow, Thomas Southworth and Constant 
Southworth the territory lying in the north 
of Taunton and known as Taunton North 
Purchase and there John and William Cobb 
became permanent settlers, the place being 
incorporated as the town of Norton, May 
17, 1710. John Cobb paid taxes into the 
treasury of Plymouth Colony according to 
the records in 1668 at the October Court; 
January, 1670, was on the jury at Plym- 
outh, for Taunton and was one of seven of 
the twelve men on the jury able to write 
his name, the other five making their marks. 
He was supervisor of highways and en- 
trusted with the laying out of boundaries as 
well as roads in 1666. He returned to 
Barnstable but his sons who did not re- 
move to Connecticut, remained in Taunton. 

II. Edward Cobb, second son of Henry 
and Patience (Hurst) Cobb, was born in 
Plymouth, 1633, and took the oath of fi- 
delity in 1659. He married Mary Hoskins, 
daughter of William and Ann .(Hynd) 
Hoskins, November 28, 1660. He re- 
moved to Taunton in 1657, where he died 
in 1675, and his widow married Samuel 
Philips. The children of Edward and Mary 
(Hoskins) Cobb were: i. Edward and 
2. John. 

HI. Edward Cobb, eldest son of Edward 
and Mary (Hoskins) Cobb was born in 
Taunton, Plymouth Colony, about 1662. 
He married but we find no record as to 
name of his wife or the date of his mar- 
riage. He had children as follows: I. 
Ebenezer (q. v.), 2. Mary, who married, 
first, Seth Dean, and had sons, Ichabod 
Paul and Silas Dean, married, second, John 
Rosher and married third, Nicholas 
Stephens. Edward Cobb gave his son 
Ebenezer fifteen acres of land in Taunton, 
taken from the northerly portion of his 
homestead farm. The deed for this land is 
dated February 22, 1733. 

IV. Ebenezer Cobb, eldest child of Ed- 
ward Cobb, second of the name, was born 
in Taunton, Massachusetts, May 6, 1696, 
and died in 1769. He married, February 6, 



BIOGRAPHICAL CYCLOPEDIA 



271 



1717, Mehitable Robinson, daughter of In- 
crease and Mehitable (Williams) Robinson 
and granddaughter of Increase Robinson, 
baptized in Dorchester, Massachusetts Bay 
Colony, May 14, 1642, son of William and 
Margaret Robinson (1635). She was born 
January 12, 1695, and died in 1761. The 
children of Ebenezer and Mehitable (Ro- 
binson) Cobb were born in Taunton, Mas- 
sachusetts, as follows: i. Jemima, June 21, 
1718; 2. Sarah, December 6, 1719; 3. 
Ebenezer, December 13, 1721 ; 4. John (q. 
V.) ; 5. Abiel, November 15, 1725, married 
Sarah Van Winkle, January 4, 1750, died 
1805; 6. Mehitable. January 9, 1728, mar- 
ried, first, a Woodruff, second, a Baldwin, 
and third, Thomas Gould, of Caldwell, New 
Jersey; 7. Edward, July 15, 1731, died in 
1813, married Elizabeth Bowers, born in 
1746, died in 1788; 8. Mary, October 12, 
1733, died in 1805; 9. Ann, June 27, 1738, 
married John Gould, died 1780. 

V. John Cobb, second son and fourth 
child of Ebenezer and Mehitable (Robin- 
son) Cobb, was born in Taunton, Massa- 
chusetts, December 27, 1723. He removed 
to Rockaway, Morris county. New Jersey, 
attracted to the place by the iron mines, in 
which business he had become familiar in 
Taunton, the family always having had an 
interest in the business from the time his 
great-great-grandfather, John Cobb, had 
helped to found the business in Taunton, in 

1639. He married Rhoda , and by 

her he had seven children as follows, all 
born in Parsippany, New Jersey: i. Sam- 
uel, baptized June 3, 1753; 2. Sarah, bap- 
tized June 3, 1753; 3. Clisby, baptized June 
10, 1753; 4- John (q. v.); 5. Rhoda, bap- 
tized April 20, 1755; 6. Robert, baptized 
October 18, 1771 ; 7. (probably) Thomas, 
born January 16. 1760, a Revolutionary sol- 
dier, who died January 17, 1845; '"s wife, 

Clara A. , born March 3, 1786, and 

died April 20, 1863, the graves of this Rev- 
olutionary soldier and iiis wife both being 
in Parsippany. John Cobb had another son 
in the American revolution, Clisby. the 
third child. He served in Captain Josiah 



Hall's Company, of Denville, New Jersey. 

\"I. John Cobb, second of the name, 
third son and fourth child of John and 
Rhoda Cobb, was born in Parsippany, Mor- 
ris county. New Jersey, November 24, 1750, 
and was bajjlizcd in the Rockaway Church 
June 10, 1753. lie had a forge at Troy 
Hills and Franklin ; was sheriff of Morris 
county in 1792, a justice of the peace, re- 
ceiving his appointment 1797 and a man 
of large interests and influence in the com- 
nuuiity. He died December 7, or (17), 
1805, and is buried at Parsippany. He 
married, October 31, 1773, Ann Parrott, 
daughter of George Parrott, who was born 
March 30, 1756, and died May 17, 1805. 
The children of John and Ann (Parrott) 
Cobb were born in Parisppany, New Jer- 
sey, as follows: i. Lucinda, November 2, 
1774, died 1777; 2. Eleanor, February 18, 
1777, died April 12, 1777; 3. Henry (q. 
V.) ; 4. John, October 19, 1780, died 1782; 
5. John Joline, M. D., August 23, 1784, 
married Jane Jacobus, July 9, 181 1, died 
February 4, 1846; 6. Jane, August 7, 1786, 
married James S. Condit, died July 25, 
'855; 7. Samuel Allen, January 10, 1790, 
died September 27, 1795; 8. Israel, Novem- 
ber II, 1794, died the same year; 9. A son 
who died soon after his birth in 1797. 

VII. Henry Cobb, eldest son and third 
child of John and Ann (Parrott) Cobb, 
was born in Parsippany, Morris county, 
New Jersey, May 23, 1778. He married 
Maria Baldwin, of Newark, who was born 
January 5, 1786, and died March i, 1864. 
Henry Cobb died June 25, 1857, and he 
and his wife are both interred in the Par- 
sippany burial ground. He was a large 
land holder in Morris county, both by in- 
heritance and purcha.se. The children of 
Henry and Maria (Baldwin) Cobb, were 
born in Parsippany, New Jersey, as fol- 
lows: I. Alexander A. (q. v.); 2. Anna 
Maria, who married John O. Condict; 3. 
John A., November 26, 1810, died March 
14. 1880; 4. Archibald, who married Mari- 
anna Brown; 5. Cornelia, born 1813, died 
August 30, 1881, unmarried; 6. Eliza, died 



2/2 



BIOGRAPHICAL CYCLOPEDIA 



April, 1903; 7. Henry, August 9, 18 19, died 
April 25, 1887; 8. Sarah, who married a 
DeHart. John A. Cobb with his father, 
Henry Cobb, were owners of the Cobb 
homestead property in the town of Troy 
which his grandfather, John Cobb, pur- 
chased from Isaac and Mary Beach, May 
15, 1788, and the survey of which property 
was made by Lemuel Cobb, May 14, 1788. 
The homestead was sold by William Ripley 
Cobb, and the other heirs to John Monteith, 
of Newark, New Jersey. Lemuel Cobb was 
born in Parsippany, New Jersey, Septem- 
ber 5, 1775, married, Elizabeth Shaw and 
died June i, 1858. Their son, Andrew 
Bell Cobb, was born June 7, 1804, and died 
January 31, 1873. 

VIII. Alexander A. Cobb, eldest child 
of Henry and Maria (Baldwin) Cobb, was 
born in Parsippany, Morris county. New 
Jersey, about 1806. He was a contractor and 
builder in Newark, New Jersey, in 1845, ^"^ 



married Clarissa Chidester, daughter of 
Phineas and Rebecca (Bryam) Chidester, 
granddaughter of Ebenezer and Hannah 
(Haywood) Bryam and great-granddaugh- 
ter of Joseph and Sarah (Allen) Bryam. 
Ebenezer Bryam, born in 1692, settled in 
East Bridgewater, Plymouth Colony, 
where he married, Hannah Haywood, 
born in 1690. They removed to Mend- 
ham, New Jersey, where he was judge 
of "ye County Courts" 1738-41 and 
major of the militia, but was known as 
Captain Bryam. His third child, Japhet, 
born 1 72 1, married Sarah Allen, in 1742. 
He was a private in the New Jersey militia 
and was called out several times in the Rev- 
olutionary war. The children of Alexan- 
der A. and Clarissa (Chidester) Cobb, 
were born in Newark, New Jersey, as fol- 
lows: I. John Atigustus, of whom below. 
2. George B., 1846; 3. Annie M., born in 
March 1842, married Harry Waters. 



JOHN A. COBB 

NEWARK 



JOHN A. COBB, eldest son of Alexan- 
der A. and Clarissa (Chidester) Cobb, 
was born in Newark, October 10, 1844, and 
died at his home in that city, November 5, 
1881, of typhoid fever, after a short illness, 
his sudden and unexpected death coming 
like a shock to his wide circle of friends be- 
cause he was, up to the the time of his fatal 
illness, a man of exceptional vigor and 
physical strength. He received his educa- 
tion in the Newark Academy, afterward 
entering Princeton University, from which 
he was graduated in the class of 1866, with 
the degree of Bachelor of Arts. It is said 
of him that in Princeton his peculiar gen- 
ius made him a marked character and he 
was remembered there as long as any stu- 
dents remained who knew the class to 
which he belonged. 
Taking up the study of law, after leaving 



college, he became a student in the office 
of Chancellor Runyon and was admitted to 
the bar of New Jersey as an attorney in 
1869, and as a counsellor in 1872. Imme- 
diately after his admission, he established 
himself in the practice of his profession, 
opening an office at No. 772 Broad street, 
Newark, and subsequently removing to 
No. 800 Broad street. He speedily built 
up a large and lucrative practice, and he 
enjoyed the confidence of his clients to the 
fullest extent. Mr. Cobb would follow a 
defendant with greater tenacity than most 
lawyers, and generally with success. He 
had the reputation of collecting more bad 
debts than any other member of the Es- 
sex county bar. Supplementary proceed- 
ings were resorted to by him to a greater 
extent than by any other lawyer of his 
time, and after the examination he usually 




uliittlc.^ I'CifC^ K^r-^^ 



BIOGRAPHICAL CYCLOPEDIA 



273 



succeeded in having a receiver appointed 
to take charge of the delinquent's business, 
with excellent results for his own client. 
He was identified during the course of his 
career with many important actions, and 
there are numerous well known cases in 
the reports that are associated with his 
name. Among these are the suits of Keve 
vs. Paxton, 11 C. E. Gr. 107; Ripley vs. the 
Freeholders of Essex and Hudson Coun- 
ties, 1 1 Vr. 45 ; Knauss vs. Jenkins, 1 1 Yr. 
288; and Randell vs. Vroom, 3 Stew. 353. 
A biographer has said of him that his 
death left a peculiar void in the ranks of 
his profession 

"because of the marked individuality of his 
character. There never was a meeting of 
the Courts of Essex County at the opening 
of the term when the members of the bar 
did not wait with interest for the calling of 
the name of John A. Cobb, sure that he 
would have a motion to make and that he 
would say something which none other 
could say and in a manner peculiar to him- 
self. He combined eccentricity with sound 
common sense. He was fond of taking 
subtle distinction and making nice points of 
practice, and, at the same time, he was ex- 
ceedingly vigorous and capable in dealing 
with practical questions." 

In his personality Mr. Cobb was a man 
of pleasing characteristics. He took a phil- 
osophical view of life, always appearing 
cheerful and never angry or depressed. He 
had a warm, kindly heart and did many acts 
of charity quietly, of which nothing will 
ever be known. He married in Newark, 
December i, 1875, Mary C. Ripley, eldest 
daughter of William C. and Caroline 
(Ward) Ripley, of that city. 



I^Iary Caroline Ripley was a grand- 
daughter of David Ripley, (1803-1883), and 
Mary Ann (Wattles) Ripley, and of Eras- 
tus and Sallie (Thomas) Wattles; great 
granddaughter of Peleg and Mollie (Bart- 
lett) Thomas, and of the Reverend William 
Ripley, (1768-1822) and Lucy (Clift) Rip- 
ley and great-great-granddaughter of the 
Reverend Hezekiah Ripley (1743-1851) 
and Dorothy Ripley. The Reverend Heze- 
kiah Ripley was chaplain in General Still- 
man's brigade in part of the campaign of 
1776 in Washington's army, encamped 
around New York, Harlem and in New 
Jersey. Her great-great-great-grandpar- 
ents were: David Ripley (1697-1781) and 
Lydia (Correy) Ripley and her great-great- 
great-great-grandparents were Joshua 
Ripley (1658-1739) and Hannah B. (Brad- 
ford) (1662-1671) Ripley. Hannah B. 
Bradford was the daughter of William 
Bradford (1624-1704) and Alice Richards 
(1627-1671) Bradford and granddaughter 
of Governor William Bradford (1588-1623) 
and Mrs. Alice Southwood Bradford, the 
emigrant progenitor of the Bradfords of 
New England. This makes Mary Caroline 
Ripley a descendant in the tenth genera- 
tion from Governor Bradford and her son, 
William Ripley Cobb, a descendant in the 
eleventh generation. The two children of 
John Augustus and Mary C. (Ripley) Cobb 
were born in Newark, New Jersey as fol- 
lows : I. IVilliain Ripley of whom below. 
2. Miriam, December 25, 1881, married 
October i, 1902, Rufus Newton Barrows 
their children in 1909 being John Alden, 
and David Newton Barrows. 



WILLIAM RIPLEY COBB 

NEWARK 



WILLIAM RIPLEY COBB, one of 
the younger lawyers of New Jersey 
who has attained early prominence at the 
bar of that State, was born in Newark, New 



Tersey, November i, 1879. He is the son 
of John A. Cobb, whose biography precedes 
this sketch, and Mary C. Ripley, daughter 
of the late William A. Ripley, who was for 



274 



BIOGRAPHICAL CYCLOPEDIA 



many years a well-known and successful 
merchant and banker of Newark. He re- 
ceived his rudimentary education in the 
Newark public schools and afterward in 
Princeton University in the class of 1901. 
Having decided upon the law as his profes- 
sion in life, he became a student in the New 
York Law School, at the same time reading 
law in the office of John Franklin Fort, who 
was afterward made Supreme Court Justice 
and still later Governor of the State of New 
Jersey. 

Mr. Cobb was admitted to the New Jer- 
sey bar as an attorney in 1901, since which 
time he has practiced his profession in New- 
ark with steadily increasing success. His 
ability has been demonstrated in the litiga- 
tion that has been entrusted to his charge, 
and his legal knowledge is of a broad char- 
acter unusual in most young men. In poli- 
tics he is a Republican and participates ac- 
tively in the campaigns of his party. He is 
a lover of books and possesses an exception- 
ally large and valuable library, in which he 
takes great pride and pleasure. He is also 
interested in antiquities and his information 



along those lines is authoritative, thanks to 
the study that he has given to the subject. 
He holds membership in the Lawyers' Club 
of Essex County, the North End Club of 
Newark, the Wednesday Club, and the 
Church Club of the Diocese of Newark, in 
all of which organizations he is prominent 
and popular. He is an Episcopalian in his 
religious convictions and is active in church 
work and kindred movements, being a lead- 
ing member of Grace Protestant Episcopal 
Church, of Newark. A man of intense 
public spirit, he takes pleasure in lending 
his co-operation to any movement that has 
in view the improvement of conditions or 
the material development of the community. 
He is warm in his sympathies and liberal, 
although unostentatious in his benefactions. 
His personality is pleasing and he stands as 
high socially as in his profession. He mar- 
ried October i, 1901, Annie Waldron Force, 
of Newark, daughter of Manning and Julia 
(Condit) Force. To this marriage has been 
born one child, a daughter, Nancy Ripley 
Cobb. 



PETER BENTLEY, SR. 

JERSEY CITY 



PETER BENTLEY, SR., who during 
a long and active professional career 
attained to eminence as one of the most 
successful lawyers of his time was born 
in the village of Half Moon, Saratoga 
County, New York in 1805. His parents 
were Christopher and Eleanor (Althouse) 
Bentley. On the paternal side he was of 
English origin, while on the maternal side 
he was descended from early Dutch fami- 
lies of New York City. His early educa- 
tional opportunities were scant for he was 
a farmer's boy and in his day the common 
school system offered but few opportuni- 
ties. Ambitious and determined to achieve 
a career for himself he bent all his efforts 



to lay the foundations of a sound educa- 
tion, and before he had become of age he 
was well equipped in book knowledge and 
in the principles of business. 

When he was twenty years of age, in 
1825, he came from his home in New 
York to Jersey City, and obtained employ- 
mejnt in the printing house of Yates & 
Mclntyre. There he remained for five 
years, but during that period, he never for- 
got his ambition for a professional career 
and neglected no opportunity to advance 
himself in that direction. The profession 
of law had always been attractive to him 
from his earliest boyhood, and he now 
made his plans definitely to enter upon 



:\ 




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BIOGR.\PHICAL CYCLOPEDIA 



275 



that career. In 1830 he became a student 
in the office of Samuel Cassidy, who was 
then one of the foremost attorneys of Eas- 
tern and Northern New Jersey. As a stu- 
dent he soon showed that he had peculiar 
qualities for the profession which he had 
chosen and he advanced rapidly in knowl- 
edge and in the confidence of those with 
whom he was associated. Durin_^ this time 
most of the business which Mr. Cassidy 
transacted in the Justices Court, was en- 
trusted to him. Admitted to practice as 
an attorney of the New Jersey bar at the 
May term in 1834, he became a counselor 
at the September term in 1839. By this 
time he found himself in prosperous cir- 
cumstances and erected an office building 
for his use, establishing himself firmly in 
business. It was not long before he found 
that his services were in great demand and 
he soon secured a large and profitable 
clientele. It has been well said of him at 
this period: 

"Matters of importance were entrusted 
to him, and he was early impressed with the 
opinion, which he retained throughout life, 
that investments in land were most safe, 
and that such estates in time of peril would 
have more defenders than any other kind 
of property. He acquired and held the con- 
fidence of the descendants of the Holland- 
ers, invested their money on bond and mort- 
gage, managed and settled the estates when 
the ownership was changed by death, and 
money flowed into his hands from the sim- 
ple reason that he evinced that he could be 
trusted and could show sagacity in its use." 

Some of the litigation with which he was 
connected was celebrated in its day and of 
far reaching importance. In 1842, he was 
engaged in the celebrated case of the Se- 
lectmen of Jersey City against Dummer, in 
which the doctrine of dedication by maps 
was decided. In this case he was the at- 
torney for the Selectmen of Jersey City. 
One of the most notable legal contests in 
which he was ever engaged, and which was 
undoubtedly one of the most notable legal 
contests in the State of New Jersev, was 
that in which Mrs. Bell made claim to a 



tract of land under water, a title to which 
had descended to her and had also been re- 
affirmed by a special grant from the New 
Jersey Legislature. The same submerged 
lands were claimed by another person on 
the ground that as he owned uncontested 
title to the bordering shore property, the 
projection of that property under water be- 
longed to him of right and he proceeded to 
assert his claim by constructing a pier. 
This case which was begun in 1843, was in 
the courts for nearly a quarter of a cen- 
tury. Mr. Bentley was the attorney for 
Mrs. Bell and in the end achieved a sub- 
stantial victory in securing for his client 
the maintenance of her claim. Subsequent- 
ly, he had the administration of Mrs. Bell's 
riparian lands in controversy in this litiga- 
tion, and disposed of them to the great ad- 
vantage of his client, and they now form 
a portion of the valuable railway terminals 
of Jersey City. 

Mr. Bentley was one of the most pa- 
triotic public men of his day. He was par- 
ticularly interested in the municipal and 
general development of Jersey City, and 
took an active part and exercised a marked 
influence in all measures for the benefit and 
advancement of the community. In 1833, 
while still a law student he was elected to 
the office of city clerk or clerk of the Board 
of Selectmen of Jersey City, and he served 
as Mayor of the city for one term, being 
elected in 1843. Other political honors were 
tendered to him from time to time but he 
had little disjjosition toward holding public 
office. In 1853, he was one of the organ- 
izers of the Mechanics & Traders Bank, of 
which institution he was for several years 
president. He was also a trustee and until 
his death the legal advi.sor of the Provident 
Institution for Savings of Jersey Cit}', vice- 
president of the Jersey City Savings Bank, 
director and treasurer of the Jersey City 
Gas Company, and treasurer of the Jersey 
City and Bergen Plank Road Company. 

He took a leading part in drafting the 
variou<: charters and other essential meas- 
ures of law upon which the foundation of 



276 



BIOGRAPHICAL CYCLOPEDIA 



the County of Hudson and its principal 
municipal corporations were based. He in- 
vested largely for himself in real estate, and 
thus became a pioneer in local improve- 
ments. He was one of the most active in 
developing the Bergen Hill section, where 
he built for himself a beautiful residence. 
Concerning this phase of his life it has been 
well said by one of his biographers: 

"He interested himself in the cause of 
his fellow citizens to prevent municipal ex- 
travagance and wasteful tax extortion. 
Finding that the accumulations of unpaid 
taxes of many years had imposed burdens 
upon mililons of dollars worth of property 
which were absolutely unjust and unendur- 
able to the property holders, he conceived 
the idea of a commission composed of lead- 
ing citizens which should re-adjust those 
burdens upon an equitable basis advantage- 
ous to the suffering citizens and the city 
treasury alike. Accordingly in 1873 he 
brought his plan before the consideration of 
the Legislature, and had the pleasure of 
seeing it enacted into law. Under its pro- 
visions a commission was appointed, with 
Judge Haines, an ex-Governor and ex- Jus- 
tice of the Supreme Court, at its head. The 
work accomplished by this commission was 
invaluable to Jersey City, and satisfactorily 
solved the most formidable problem which 
ever threatened the welfare of the com- 
munity." 

Earnestly devoted to the principles of the 
Democratic party in his early life, he sep- 
arated from his party in 1848, upon the 
issue of slavery, and became one of the 
leaders in forming the Free Soil party in 
New Jersey. Thereafter he was politically 



devoted to the principles which he then 
adopted. Throughout the Civil War he 
was a thoroughly earnest supporter of the 
cause of the union. 

In his private character he has been de- 
scribed by a biographer as "a rare gentle- 
man, peculiarly attached to his wife and 
children, gracious and hospitable in his 
home, sincere and earnest in his religious 
faith, and so honest and honorable in all 
the affairs of life that the faintest breath 
was never raised to question his perfect in- 
tegrity." He died at his home in Jersey 
City, September 26, 1875. At the time of 
his death he was the oldest practitioner of 
the Jersey City bar, having a record of 
some forty-two years of professional ser- 
vice. The courts of Hudson County ad- 
journed their business as a mark of respect 
to his memory and appointed a committee 
to draft suitable resolutions. One of the 
resolutions reported and adopted was as 
follows : 

"That the Bench and Bar have lost one 
who stood eminent in his professional life 
and character, being always devoted to the 
interests of his clients. He had a clear 
perception of the right and a happy faculty 
of adjusting disputes and effecting settle- 
ments among men, and in the long course 
of his professional life he has left a spot- 
less record." 

He married, October 13, 1842, Margaret 
E. Holmes, of Jersey City, and had two 
children: Peter Bentley, second, and a 
daughter, Rosaline Bentley. 



PETER BENTLEY, SECOND 

JERSEY CITY 



PETER BENTLEY, second, son of Pe- 
ter and Margaret E. (Holmes) Bentley, 
was born in Jersey City, December 5, 1845. 
His early education was secured under the 
direction of the Reverend Mr. Van Cleck, 
and was not pursued in any public educa- 



tional institutions. His natural bent to the 
law manifested itself at an early age, and 
he entered his father's law office, where he 
had the opportunity of remarkable advan- 
tages, under the observing eye of his fath- 
er and in exceptionally good surroundings. 



BIOGRAPHICAL CYCLOPEDIA 



277 



He was thus enabled to lay an unusually 
sound foundation for his chosen career. 
Few, if any attorneys of his period came to 
the bar so well grounded in the theory of 
the law and in its practical business. Nat- 
urally he at once associated himself in 
practice with his father who entrusted to 
him the entire conduct of the office, and 
ultimately he succeeded to the very large 
and lucrative clientele, which had been se- 
cured by the elder Bentley. Mentally, he 
resembled his father in many respects and 
was held in the highest esteem, not only by 
his parent, but by all who came into asso- 
ciation with him. It has been well said of 
him by one writer : 

"He frequently championed the cause of 
his fellow citizens as his father had done. 
For example, he was the successful counsel 
in proceedings whereby the unjust water 
rents on vacant property, and upon prop- 
erty where the water privileges were not 
used, were set aside and made inoperative, 
with thus a great saving effected to tax 
payers. Again at the time of his death he 
was the representative of the citizens in the 
proceedings instituted to set aside the whole 
tax levy on the ground of gross inequality 
in its assessment." 

Some of the most successful business of 
Mr. Bentley was in the handling of the af- 
fairs of large corporate enterprises, so as 



to avoid tedious and expensive litigation. 
He was counsel for the .Standard Oil Com- 
pany, one of the leading counsel of the Le- 
high Valley Railroad Company, and coun- 
sel for the Barber Asphalt Company of 
New York City, and the Provident Institu- 
tion for Savings and the Consumers' Gas 
Company of Jersey City. He also ren- 
dered important legal service to the IVnn- 
sylvania Railroad Company. After the 
death of his father Mr. Bentley was asso- 
ciated in legal practice with Charles H. 
Hartsliorne, under the firm name of Bent- 
ley & Hartsliorne. This partnership was 
dissolved in 1886, and from that time until 
his death he practiced alone. 

Mr. lientley died in Jersey City, April 
30, 1888. He married, November 3, 1869, 
Enmia Parker, of Jersey City, daughter of 
Captain Robert Parker, the owner of 
Watts Island in Chesapeake Bay, which 
has lieen in the Parker family since its first 
occupation in colonial times. They had 
seven children, Eleanor, born July 13, 
1871, wife of Warren H. Dixon, son of the 
late Justice Di.von, of Jersey City; Emily, 
l)orn December 5, 1872, wife of Joseph M. 
Rector; Peter third, born February 6, 
1874, Richard Parker, born September 25, 
1875; John, born June 16, 1879; Eugenie, 
born December 23, 1881, and Parker, born 
June 16, 1884. 



PETER BENTLEY, THIRD 

JERSEY CITY 



PETER BENTLEY. third, the elder son 
of Peter Bentley, second, and Emma 
( Parker) Bentley, was born in Jersey City, 
February 6, 1875. He received a .sound 
general education. In his early years he 
was prepared for college and stndicfl in 
Princeton University. It was natural that 
he should be inclined to the profession of 
law since his father and grandfatlicr so dis- 
tinguished themselves therein, and by 



heredity had bestowed upon him an inborn 
talent for that pursuit. At an early age he 
began the study of law in the office of War- 
ren Dixon of Jersey City, and was admitted 
to the bar of New Jersey as an attorney in 
November. 1895. Immediately he engaged 
in the practice of his profession in Jersey 
City. There he has had success in achiev- 
ing a high standing among the practitioners 
of the younger generation, and is regarded 



378 



BIOGRAPHICAL CYCLOPEDIA 



as one of the representative men of his pro- 
fession in Eastern New Jersey. His pro- 
found knowledge of the law is recognized 
not alone by laymen but as well by his pro- 



fessional associates, while also as an advo- 
cate he has achieved a high reputation for 
his natural ability and for the force and 
brilliancy of his arguments. 



JOHN POTTER STOCKTON 

ENGLEWOOD 



JOHN POTTER STOCKTON, distin- 
guished alike in law and literature, was 
born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, Febru- 
ary 2, 1852. He is the son of John Potter 
Stockton and Sarah Alarks, and comes of a 
family that for generations has figured 
prominently and with honor in important 
affairs, National and State. No name in 
New Jersey is more conspicuous in the pro- 
fessional and military history of the colony 
and State. Originally the family came from 
England, where they were celebrated, one 
of the members being Lord Mayor of Lon- 
don. The founder of the American branch 
was Richard Stockton, who came to this 
country before 1670 and who, after resid- 
ing several years on Long Island, pur- 
chased, about 1680, a tract of 6,400 acres of 
land in New Jersey, of which the present 
city of Princeton is nearly the centre. About 
1682 he and his associates formed a settle- 
ment there and were the first Europeans in 
the district. 

This Richard Stockton was the great- 
great-great-great-great-grandfather of the 
present John Potter Stockton. His grand- 
son was John Stockton, who inherited 
"Morven," the fami-ly-seat, and was for 
many years Chief Judge of the Court of 
Common Pleas of Somerset County. The 
latter's son, Richard, the great-great-grand- 
father of the present John Potter Stockton, 
was one of the signers of the Declaration 
of Independence. He was born near Prince- 
ton, October i, 1730, and died there Febru- 
ary 28, 1 78 1. He was graduated from 
Queens College, now Princeton University, 
in 1748, studied law under David Ogden in 



Newark, and in 1754 was admitted to the 
bar, where he soon attained reputation. In 
1768 he was made a member of the Execu- 
tive Council of the Province and in 1774 he 
was raised to the Supreme Bench of New 
Jersey. He strove at first to eflfect a recon- 
ciliation between the colonies and the 
mother country and on December 12, 1774, 
sent to Lord Dartmouth "An Expedient for 
the Settlement of the American Disputes," 
in which he proposed a plan of colonial self 
government. But soon he became active in 
efforts to organize opposition to England 
and on June 21, 1776, was chosen by the 
Provincial Congress a member of the Con- 
tinental Congress, then in session in Phila- 
delphia. He was re-elected to Congress, 
where he was an active member, and in 
September, 1776, at the first meeting of the 
State delegates under the new constitution, 
he was a candidate for Governor. On the 
first ballot he and William Livingston re- 
ceived an equal number of votes, but the 
latter was finally elected. Mr. Stockton 
was then chosen Chief Justice by unani- 
mous vote but declined. On September 26, 
1776, he and George Clymer were appoint- 
ed a committee to inspect the northern army 
and on November 30 he was captured by a 
party of loyalists and thrown into the com- 
mon prison in New York, from which his 
release was subsequently effected through 
the intervention of Congress and General 
Washington. His statue was placed by the 
State of New Jersey in the capitol at Wash- 
ington in 1888. His wife, Annis Boudinot, 
sister of Dr. Elias Boudinot, was well- 
known for her literary attainments. One 




■A 



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^j>t)^~-^-^^ . ~]^^^rr^<^ 



BIOGRAPHICAL CYCLOPEDIA 



279 



of her poems, addressed to Washington, 
drew from him a courtly acknowledgment. 
She also wrote the stanzas beginning "Wel- 
come, mighty chief, once more," which 
were sung by young ladies of Trenton while 
strewing flowers before General Washing- 
ton on his passage through that city on his 
way to New York, to be inaugurated as the 
first President of the United States. 

Richard Stockton, the son of Richard 
and Annis (Boudinot) Stockton, was the 
great-grandfather of John Potter Stock- 
ton. He was born near Princeton, April 
17, 1764, and died there March 7, 1828. He 
was graduated from Princeton College in 
1779. studied law in Newark with Elias 
Boudinot, was admitted to the bar in 1784, 
and attained eminence in his profession. 
In 1796 he was chosen to the United States 
Senate, serving until March 3, 1799, when 
he declined to be a candidate for re-elec- 
tion. He served in the lower house of Con- 
gress in 1813-15 and again declined further 
candidacy. In 1825 he was appointed one 
c>f the commissioners on the part of New 
Jersey to settle a territorial dispute with 
New York, and he was the author of the 
able argument appended to the report of 
the New Jersey Commissioners. He was 
often referred to as "The Duke." 

Robert Field Stockton, son of the last 
mentioned Richard Stockton, and grand- 
father of John Potter Stockton, the sec- 
ond, was equally eminent as a naval offi- 
cer. He was born in Princeton, August 20, 
1795, and died there, October 7, 1866. He 
entered Princeton College but before com- 
pleting his course he became a midship- 
man in the United States Navy. He had 
command of three hundred sailors in the 
flefense of Baltimore against the British, 
was highly commended, and promoted to 
lieutenant, in 1814. He participated in the 
capture of the Algerine frigate "Mahou- 
da," and led the boarders at the capture of 
the Algerine brig "Esledio" in June. 1815. 
His subsequent services were equally not- 
able. He captured the French slaver 



"Jeune Eugenie," by which action the right 
to seize slavers under a foreign flag was 
first established as legal and he also cap- 
tured several piratical vessels in the West 
Indies. From 1826 to 1838 he was on leave 
and resided in Princeton. He organized the 
New Jersey Colonization Society, was ac- 
tive in politics, and became interested in 
tile Delaware and Raritan canal, for which 
he obtained the charter that had originally 
been given to a New York company, and 
vigorously prosecuted the work. In De- 
cember, 1838, he sailed with Commodore 
Isaac Hull in the flag-ship "Ohio" as fleet 
captain of the Mediterranean squadron, 
being promoted to captain on December 8. 
When John Tyler became President, a seat 
in the Cabinett as Secretary of the Navy 
was ofTered to Stockton, but he declined. 
The L'nited States steamer "Princeton" 
was built under his supervision. He had 
command of the naval brigade in Califor- 
nia during the Mexican War and his ser- 
vices there were of so important and dis- 
tinguished a character that the Legislature 
of New Jersey gave him a vote of thanks 
and a reception, while the people of Cali- 
fornia named for him the city of Stockton 
and also one of the principal streets of San 
Francisco. He was elected to the L'nited 
States Senate in 185 1 but resigned in 1853. 
While in that body he introduced and ad- 
vocated the bill abolishing flogging in the 
navy and also urged measures for coast 
defense. 

Commodore Stockton married Harriet 
Maria Potter, daughter of John Potter, of 
Charleston, S. C. Their son, John Pot- 
ter Stockton, was born in Princeton, Au- 
gust 2, 1826, and died January 22, 1900. 
He was graduated from Princeton Col- 
lege in 1843. read law in his native town 
with Judge Richard S. Field, and was ad- 
mitted to the bar as an attorney in April, 
1847, 3"fl ^s a counselor in April, 1850. He 
practiced his profession in New Jersey 
with marked success until 1857, being ap- 
pointed in the meantime as a commissioner 



28o 



BIOGRAPHICAL CYCLOPEDIA 



to revise and simplify the proceedings and 
practice in the courts of law of the State, 
in which capacity he made a report that 
was adopted by the Legislature, and he 
was for several years afterward reporter to 
the Court of Chancery. In 1857 he was 
named as United States Minister to Rome 
by President Buchanan, serving with dig- 
nity and credit until 1861, when he was re- 
called at his own request. On his return 
home he resumed the practice of law in 
Trenton, and in 1865 was elected to the 
United States Senate but was unseated on 
account of the election by a plurality act 
wanting one of a majority. He was, how- 
ever, re-elected in 1869, serving until 1875, 
and gaining recognition as one of the 
Democratic leaders in the body as well as 
one of its ablest members. While in the 
Senate he advocated the establishment of 
life saving stations on the coast and pro- 
cured in the appropriation bills the first 
provision for their maintenance. In 1877 
he was appointed Attorney-General of 
New Jersey, serving with such ability that 
he was renamed for that office in 1882 and 
again in 1887 and 1893. In this capacity 
he sustained by exhaustive arguments the 
system of railroad taxation, reversing in 
the Court of Errors the decisions of the 
Supreme Court against the State. He was 
a delegate-at-large to all the Democratic 
National Conventions after that of 1864, at 
which, as chairman of the New Jersey del- 
egation, he nominated General George B. 
McClellan for the Presidency. He was al- 
so a delegate to the Unionists' convention 
at Philadelphia in 1866. The degree of 
Doctor of Laws was conferred upon him 
by Princeton University in 1882. He 
published "Equity Reports," being the de- 
cisions of the Courts of Chancery and Ap- 
peals, in three volumes, Trenton, 1856-60. 
At the close of his fourth term as Attor- 
ney-General, he resumed the practice of 
law, opening an office in Jersey City, in 
April, 1897, with his son, the subject of this 
sketch. 



John Potter Stockton, son of the John 
Potter Stockton, just mentioned, and the 
subject of this sketch, received his prepara- 
tory education in the Charlier Institute in 
the City of New York. He did not come 
to the bar until middle life as his father 
insisted that a general knowledge of men, 
affairs and business with a scientific educa- 
tion were essential, in these days, to a suc- 
cessful practice of law. The earlier portion 
of his career was devoted to the study of 
railroads in New Jersey, as well as other 
business interests. He was connected 
with several banking and insurance institu- 
tions and at different periods he was con- 
nected with the Erie Railroad, the New 
Jersey Southern Railroad, and the Central 
Railroad of New Jersey. In 1883 he took 
up the study of medicine preparatory to 
his study of law. He was admitted to the 
bar of New Jersey as an attorney in 1895 
and counselor in 1899. He was admitted 
to the United States Court in 1899 and to 
the bar of New York in 1900. After his 
admission he established his office in Jer- 
sey City, where he has since carried on his 
profession with exceptional success. He 
has displayed legal qualifications of the 
highest order in his professional work and 
is noted for his skillful and scientific de- 
fence of Edward Clifford, although he was 
not called into the case until Clifford had 
been convicted. He commands a large 
and important clientile and is counsel for 
a number of influential interests. 

As a citizen as well as in the capacity of 
lawyer and advocate, Mr. Stockton has ac- 
quired an honorable reputation, enjoying 
the esteem and confidence of all with whom 
he holds relations, and in his own career he 
has added to the prestige of the family 
name. He has devoted a great deal of at- 
tention to literature, being a contributor to 
some of the leading magazines and the au- 
thor of several books that have attracted 
attention. One of his books entitled "Za- 
phra" has gained for him a wide reputation 
and enviable standing in the field of Amer- 




^^A^rA 



BIOGRAPHICAL CYCLOrKDIA 



281 



ican literary effort. He belongs to the 
school of advanced tlinught and is deeply 
interested in all that tends to improve the 



condition of the submerged. He is a mem- 
ber of various clubs and organizations, in 
all which he is deservedly popular. 



ANDREW KIRKPATRICK 

NKW BRUNSWICK 



ANDREW KIRKPATRICK, chief-jus- 
tice of New Jersey, third son of David 
and Mary (McEowen) Kirkpatrick, was 
born in Mine Brook, N. J., February 17, 
1756. He was graduated from the College 
of New Jersey (now Princeton University) 
in 1775. His father, who had been reared 
in the strictest sect of Presbyterian doc- 
trines, was ambitious that he should pursue 
a clerical career, and for several months 
after his graduation Andrew was occupied 
with divinity studies under the Reverend 
Dr. Kennedy. But having a strong prefer- 
ence for the legal profession, he discon- 
tinued the course of preparation thus be- 
gun, and, incurring his father's displeasure 
in consequence, was obliged to rely upon his 
own energies for the realization of his aim. 
Turning to account the excellent education 
he had received, he accepted a position as 
tutor in a family in Virginia, subsequently 
being similarly employed in Esopus, New 
York, and from there going to New Bruns- 
wick, New Jersey, where he was engaged 
in preparing young men for college. 

Entering the law office of the Honorable 
William Paterson (at one time governor of 
New Jersey, and later justice of the United 
States supreme court and an eminent New 
Jersey lawyer), he obtained a thorough 
training in the principles and practice of his 
chosen profession, and in 1785 was admit- 
ted to the bar. After a brief period of prac- 
tice at Morristown (where unfortunately 
his office and library were destroyed by fire) 
he removed to New Brunswick. Here 

"His commanding talents were soon ap- 
preciated. He added to his native ability, 
which was uncommonly great, a most un- 



tiring industry ; and the combination of 
these characteristics, with his stern integ- 
rity, soon won for him a leading position at 
the bar, not only in his own county, but all 
over the state." 

In 1797 Andrew Kirkpatrick was elected 
to the New Jersey assembly from Middle- 
sex County. He sat in that body during the 
first part of its session, but in January, 
1798, resigned to assume the office of asso- 
ciate-justice of the supreme court of New 
Jersey. After six years in this distinguish- 
ed position he was elevated to the chief- 
justiceship, succeeding Chief-Justice Kin- 
sey. He was twice re-elected as chief-jus- 
tice, serving for a continuous period of 
twenty-one years ; or twenty-seven years al- 
together as a member of the court. 

The judicial decisions of Chief-Justice 
Kirkpatrick are marked by very extensive 
learning and great acumen and power of 
analysis. For strictly logical qualities of 
mind, as well as a personal dignity and 
honor in every way corresponding to the 
highest ideal of a judge, he ranks among 
the historical characters of the New Jersey 
bench. To him the state is indebted for the 
creation of the office of reporter of the de- 
cisions of the supreme court. Eminently 
public spirited, he was "foremost in aiding 
measures for the common good ; of great 
piety and unaffected zeal in the cause of re- 
ligion." He was the founder of the Theo- 
logical Seminary at Princeton, being the 
first president of its board of trustees and 
continuing in that office many years. He 
was also conspicuous in connection with the 
affairs of Princeton College, and from 1809 



282 



BIOGRAPHICAL CYCLOPEDIA 



until his death was one of the trustees of 
that institution. In politics he was a strong 
supporter of the principles of the Anti- 
Federalist or Republican (later the Demo- 
cratic) party, and in a notable campaign 
was its candidate for governor of New Jer- 
sey. Possessing a distinguished presence 
and bearing he was in private as in public 
life one of the most esteemed and admired 
men of his times. His entire private life — 
and especially in its domestic relations — 
was marked by the highest personal stand- 



ards, a keen sense of justice, considerate- 
ness, and loyalty. 

He died in New Brunswick, New Jersey, 
in 1 83 1. He married, November i, 1792, 
Jane Bayard, daughter of Colonel John and 
Margaret (Hodge) Bayard. She was born 
July 12, 1772, and died February 6, 1851. 
Mrs. Kirkpatrick was widely known for 
her accomplishments, benevolence, and 
beautiful Christian character, and was the 
author of "Light of Other Days," edited by 
her daughter, Mrs. Jane E. Cogswell. 



J. BAYARD KIRKPATRICK 

NEWARK 



J BAYARD KIRKPATRICK, son of 
.Judge Andrew and Alice (Condit) 
Kirkpatrick, was born in Newark, May i, 
1872. After attending the St. Paul School, 
Concord, New Hampshire, for five years, 
he entered Harvard College and was grad- 
uated in 1894. Having decided to follow 
his father's profession, he entered Harvard 
Law School, from which he was graduated 
in 1897. He then entered the office of 
Coult and Howell, and was admitted to 
practice in February, 1898. Three years 
later he was admitted as a counsellor. He 
at once displayed ability of a high order 
and has been able to advance to a high posi- 
tion in the New Jersey bar. Although con- 
tinuing to practice his profession with in- 
creasing success, he has become president 
of the New Jersey Tide and Abstract Com- 



pany and was the first president of the law- 
yers' Title Guaranty Company. He was 
also secretary of the Neptune Meter Com- 
pany, one of the largest water meter com- 
panies in the United States. 

Politically Mr. Kirkpatrick is true to the 
traditions and teachings of his ancestors, 
and is a Democrat. He is actively inter- 
ested in many of the social and patriotic 
societies and a member of the New Jersey 
Historical Society, Washington Associa- 
tion of Morristown, the Engineer's Qub of 
New York, the Harvard Club of New 
York, the Harvard Club of Pennsylvania, 
the Harvard Club of New Jersey, and the 
Union Club of Newark. He is a member 
of Grace Episcopal Church of Newark and 
trustee of St. Matthews German Episcopal 
Church of Newark. 



WILLIAM PITT ODELL 

NEWARK 



THE ODELL FAMILY in the United 
States is descended from William 
Odell, who is believed to have come to 
America in 1635, in company with the 
Reverend Peter Bulkeley, who had been 



rector of the Parish of Odell, in Bedford- 
shire, England. William Odell was living 
in the town of Concord, Massachusetts, in 
1639 but about 1644, he removed to Fair- 
field, Connecticut, where he became a man 




"CZ/C'T^^^cyt 



^ 






BIOGRAPHICAL CYCLOPEDIA 



283 



of much distinction and a large property 
holder, and died in 1676. He was probably 
married in England, but the name of his 
wife is unknown. It is believed she died 
shortly before 1644. A register of the 
births and deaths in Concord notes the 
birth and death of their son James ( 1^139- 
1641) and the birth of their daughter Re- 
becca (1642). As far as now known their 
children were three sons, William, James 
and John, and the daughter Rebecca, who 
married Samuel Morehouse. Records show 
that the first William Odell bequeathed 
much property located both in Concord 
and Fairfield. 

The second William Odell was born 
about 1634, bought anil inherited consider- 
able land in Fairfield, and removing to 
Rye, New York, acquired other property, 
and died there about 1700. He married a 
daughter of Richard Vowles, of that town. 
His brother John, born in Fairfield, Con- 
necticut, married Joanna, daughter of Jo- 
seph and Abigail Walker, of Stratford, 
Connecticut, and the latter town has the 
credit of having been the birthplace of a 
long list of their descendants. While these 
Odells became very numerous in Fairfield, 
Stratford and other parts of Connecticut, 
and also spread to Newark, Elizabethtown, 
Burlington, Allentown, and Connecticut 
Farms, in New Jersey, as well as to Fred- 
erickton. Province of New Brunswick, the 
Odells descended from the second William 
became so numerous in Wcstciiester 
County, New York, as to practically con- 
stitute a distinct family. They are found 
at Cortlandt, Harlem, Fordham, Green- 
burg, Hastings. White Plains, and, espec- 
ially at Rye, Tarrytown and ^'onkers. 

William Pitt Odell, the subject of this 
sketch, is descended from the Tarrytown 
branch of the family. His great-grand- 
father was the Honorable Abraham Odell, 
who was born in Greenburg, on January 4, 
1760. ser\'ed in the army through the Rev- 
olutionary War, was a member of the New 
York Legislature in 1801-1805 and 1807- 
iSio, and died on February 26, 1820. 



Abraham married Anne, daughter of Cor- 
nelius and Rachel (Horton) Mandeville, of 
Cortlandt, New York, who was born on 
November 2"], 1760, and died on .\ugust 
'5. '835. Abraham's brother, John born 
on October 25, 175C, and died on October 
26, 1835, '^^^ ^ mounted guide in the 
.\mcrican army in the Revolutionary War, 
and became a lieutenant-colonel of the 
New York State troops in 1797. He mar- 
ried Hannah, daughter of John and Ann 
McChain, of Cortlandt, New York. 

Jacob Odell, the grandfather of William 
Pitt Odell, was born February 29, 1790, 
married Susan Tompkins, of Greenburg, 
and was engaged in farming in that town. 
Three sons and four daughters were born 
of this union, of whom Edmund C, who 
married Caroline McChain, became his 
father. This marriage for a second time 
united the Odell and McChain families. 
Edmund C. Odell was born October 26, 
1814, and died in 1894; his wife Caroline 
( McChain ) Odell, was born September 5, 
1827, and died December 3, 1896. 

Mr. Odell, the subject of this sketch, 
was born in Redfield, Iowa, on July 15, 
1859. He was educated in Public School 
No. 59, and in the college of the City of 
New York, and on completing his course in 
the latter institution in 1875, he entered the 
mercantile house of H. B. Claflin & Co., as 
an office boy. In 1882 he was promoted 
to the position of cashier, which he still 
(1909) retains, the concern in the mean- 
time having become the extensive corpora- 
tion of the H. B. Claflin Company. The 
office of cashier in a business house of such 
great magnitude as the H. B. Claflin Com- 
j)any, is one far beyond the ordinary, as 
Mr. Odell daily handles an amount of 
money that reaches into the millions; and 
the safe-guarding of so respon.sible a trust 
has absorbed his entire business attention, 
excepting that he is president of the Rose- 
ville Trust Company of Newark. He is a 
member of the Central Presbyterian Church 
of New York City. 

Mr. Odell was married on October n, 



284 



BIOGRAPHICAL CYCLOPEDIA 



1 88 1, to Gertrude, daughter of John D. and 
Mary Hennion Naugle, of Paramus, New 
Jersey. Her father was born September 
27, 1830, and died August 24, 1901, and 
her mother was born September 8, 1835, 
and died August 24, 1909. Her paternal 
grandparents were David B. and Harriet 
(Carlock) Naugle. Two children have 
been born to Mr. and Mrs. Odell, William 
Harold, born July 28, 1889, died March 
8, 1892, and Herbert Naugle, born Sep- 
tember 29, 1894. 

The family name has undergone many 
changes in spelling. In the parish registers 
and other public records of England it ap- 
pears as Wodell, Woddell, Woodell, Wod- 
dle, Odill, Odell, and Odle, and the ancient 
seat of the family in Bedfordshire is in- 
variably written as Wohall, Wodhull, 
Woodhull, Woodhill, and as on the present 
country map, Odell. Rufus King, of Yon- 
kers, New York, a son of Rufus S. King, 
who married Phoebe, youngest daughter of 
the Honorable Abraham Odell, writing on 
the supposed identity of the Odell and 
Woodhull families, says that in America 
these families have not traced any relation- 



ship, "though Richard Woodhull, Gent., 
born about 1620, the progenitor of the 
Woodhulls in this country, is frequently 
described in the public records as Richard 
Odell, and William Odell, Jr. of Rye, New 
York, signed as William Woodhull" a peti- 
tion in 1668. 

Burke's "Landed Gentry" describes the 
ancient arms and crest of the Odell family 
as follows: Anns: or, three crescents, 
gules. Crest: A arm embowed in armor, 
holding a sword, all proper. Motto: "Pro 
Patria Invictito." In the parish church at 
Mollington, Oxfordshire, is the tomb of 
Mrs. Elizabeth Woodhull, "late wife of 
Richard Woodhull, alias Odell, of Molling- 
ton," bearing the Woodhull arms — the three 
crescents, gules. There is extant a book- 
plate of Jonathan Odell (1737-1818), born 
in Newark, New Jersey, who became a sur- 
geon in the British army, then rector of St. 
Ann's Church, in Burlington, New Jersey, 
and lastly secretary of the province of New 
Brunswick, which shows the three crescents 
on a shield, surmounted by an erect rooster, 
above which is a ribbon bearing the motto 
"Ne quid Niuis." 



MORRIS ROBESON SHERRERD 

NEWARK 



MORRIS ROBESON SHERRERD, 
whose achievements as a civil engi- 
neer have given him a standing and pres- 
tige in his profession second to none, was 
born in Scranton, Pennsylvania, Decem- 
ber 16, 1865. He is the son of Samuel and 
Frances Maria (Hamilton) Sherrerd, and 
a descendant of an old and prominent New 
Jersey family, his ancestors having lived 
since Revolutionary times in Warren 
County of that State, where his boyhood 
days were spent. The family is of Eng- 
lish origin and the founder of the Ameri- 
can branch was John Sherrerd, who came 
to this country from the city of London 



about the middle of the eighteenth century, 
settling at Pleasant Valley, then Mansfield 
Township, Sussex County and now Wash- 
ington Township, Warren County. There 
he owned a large farm and carried on a 
store and grist and saw mills, being a man 
of importance in the community. He was 
twice married and had two sons, Samuel 
and John. 

Samuel Sherrerd succeeded his father in 
business and died in 1832, being buried 
with his father, mother and wife, in the 
old Mansfield burying ground near Wash- 
ington village. He married November 28, 
1793, Ann Maxwell, daughter of Captain 





XAJ^X. 




BIOGRAPHICAL CYCLOPEDIA 



285 



John and Mary Ann (Clifford) Maxwell, 
who was born November 25, 1771, and 
died Augfust 4, 1815. Her father, Captain 
Maxwell, was an officer in the war of the 
Revolution, and she was a niece of Gen- 
eral William Maxwell, who commanded 
the New Jersey troops in the struggle for 
independence and was one of General 
Washington's most trusted generals. 

John Maxwell Sherrerd, the eldest of 
eleven children of Samuel and Ann Max- 
well Sherrerd, was born September 6, 1794, 
in Pleasant Valley, on the Pohatcong 
Creek, a short distance below the village of 
Washington, on the property where his 
grandfather originally settled. He died at 
Belvidere, New Jersey, May 26, 1871. His 
preparatory education was obtained in 
Basking Ridge, Somerset County, at a 
school of some note in those days, of which 
the Reverend Dr. Finley was master. From 
this school he entered the College of New 
Jersey and was graduated from Nassau 
Hall in 1812. He commenced his legal 
studies with his uncle the Honorable George 
Clifford Maxwell, then a member of Con- 
gress, residing in Flemington, Hunterdon 
County, but his uncle dying during his 
clerkship, he completed his studies there in 
the office of the Honorable Charles Ewing, 
afterward Chief Justice of New Jersey. He 
was admitted to the bar as an attorney in 
November, 1816, and immediately formed 
a partnership in the practice of law with 
another uncle, William Maxwell, a connec- 
tion that was sustained until 1818, when he 
returned to Pleasant Valley, where his 
father ha<l provided him with a dwelling 
and an office for his practice. 

On the creation of the new county of 
Warren, he was appointed as its first Sur- 
rogate and in 1826 removed to Belvidere. 
where he resided until his death. While at- 
tending carefully to his official duties, he 
did not neglect the practice of his profession 
but continued to give it close attention in 
the courts other than those of which he was 
the recording officer. At that time com- 
munication with the State Capital was not 



convenient and most of the business of the 
Supreme Court was transacted by the law- 
yers resident in Trenton. In consequence 
of this, he did not apply for admission as a 
counselor until 1831 and was admitted as 
such in the February term of that year. He 
continued active in the practice of his pro- 
fession throughout his entire career and 
was for a number of years recognized as 
the leading member of the Warren County 
bar, being engaged in almost every case that 
came up for trial. He was noted for sharp- 
ness in examining witnesses and for atten- 
tion to the interests of his clients, often at 
the cost of lively encounters with his adver- 
saries. As he grew older, however, he felt 
less inclination for the rough and tumble of 
professional life and devoted his attention 
more to office business. He had early taken 
a decided stand in religious matters and, as 
he advanced in age, he became more and 
more devoted to benevolent and Christian 
enterprises. He preferred the quiet of his 
own family and the pleasures of social in- 
tercourse to the turmoils of politics and he 
never held office except as Surrogate. For 
the same reason he never sought or held a 
judicial appointment. Mr. Sherrerd mar- 
ried. May 19, 1818, Sarah Brown, of Phila- 
delphia, who died in 1844. Their children 
were Samuel, John Browne, and Sarah Dut- 
ton. who married Dr. Philip Fine Brakeley, 
eminent in his day as a leading physician. 

The eldest son Samuel Sherrerd, was 
born April 25, 1819, in Pleasant \'alley 
New Jersey, and died in Belvidere. June 
21, 1884. He was graduated from Prince- 
ton College in 1836 and then studied law 
with Henry Dusenberry Maxwell, in Fas- 
ten, Pennsylvania, being admitted to the 
bar of Northampton County, Pennsylvan- 
ia in 1842. He subsequently engaged in 
business in Scranton, Pennsylvania, and in 
Bottetout, Virginia, being a pioneer in 
the iron business in \'irginia, although he 
was too early in the field to reap the bene- 
fits of his labors in that branch of endeav- 
or. He practiced law a while in Scranton 
and returned to Belvidere in 1868. In 



286 



BIOGRAPHICAL CYCLOPEDIA 



1873 he was admitted to the bar of New 
Jersey as an attorney and in 1874 was ap- 
pointed President Judge of the court of 
Common Pleas of Warren County, in that 
State, to fill the unexpired term of the 
Honorable James M. Robeson, who re- 
signed. Judge Sherrerd married May 6, 
1847, Frances Maria Hamilton. Their 
children were Eliza Hamilton, Alexander 
Hamilton, Anna Maria Robeson, John 
Maxwell, Mary Robeson and Morris 
Robeson. 

Morris Robeson Sherrerd is descended, 
through his mother, from many leading 
families of Pennsylvania and New Jersey; 
the Robeson, Paul and Rockhill of her 
mother's line, and Fitz Randolph, Man- 
ning, Ross and Hamilton of her father's 
line. 

The Robesons were of the society of 
Friends or Quakers and were of the 
wealthiest and most influential of the early 
settlers of Pennsylvania and New Jersey; 
Jonathan Robeson, the founder of the New 
Jersey branch, was a son of Judge Andrew 
Robeson, Chief Justice of the Province 
of Pennsylvania, who came to America 
from Scotland, in 1676. The son Jona- 
than was born in Gloucester County, New 
Jersey, afterward lived in Pennsylvania 
from whence he moved to Sussex County 
(now Warren County) New Jersey, in 1741, 
established the first iron furnace of that 
section in 1842 and founded the town of 
Oxford; he was one of the first judges 
of Sussex County and his son, grandson, 
and great-grandson each in turn, occupied 
seats on the judicial bench. Maurice 
Robeson, son of Jonathan, was associated 
with his father in the iron industry ; he 
married Anne Rockhill of Pittstown, New 
Jersey, whose brother. Dr. John Rockhill, 
married a sister of Maurice. Morris Robe- 
son son of Maurice, married Tacy Paul of 
Philadelphia, and their daughter, Eliza 
Robeson married General Samuel Fitz 
Randolph Hamilton, a prominent law- 
yer of Trenton, and for many years Quar- 
ter-Master General of New Jersey. Gen- 



eral Hamilton was a descendant of the 
noted Massachusetts settler, Edward Fitz- 
Randolph, who settled in America in 1630, 
and whose youngest son, Benjamin was 
the ancestor of General Hamilton. Benja- 
min settled in Princeton, New Jersey, 
where he became a prominent citizen. He 
was a large land owner, the tract where 
Princeton College is located having be- 
longed to his estate. Part of this land was 
donated to the College by his son, Nathan- 
iel, and "Old Nassau Hall" was erected 
thereon. General Hamilton and Eliza 
Robeson, were the parents of Frances M. 
Hamilton (Sherrerd). 

Morris Robeson Sherrerd, son of Sam- 
uel and Frances Maria (Hamilton) Sher- 
rerd, was prepared for college in the Blair 
Presbyterian Academy of Blairstown, af- 
terward attending the Rensselaer Poly- 
technic Institute in Troy, New York, from 
which institution he was graduated in the 
class of 1886 with the degree of Civil Engi- 
neer. After a short experience on, railroad 
work, he was for two years connected with 
the Lackawanna Iron and Coal Company 
of Scranton, Pennsylvania. The next two 
years were spent on municipal work under 
the Public Improvements Commission of 
Troy, New York, as Superintendent of 
Construction of Sewers and Pavements, at 
the end of which time he left that position 
to accept that of Assistant City Engineer 
of Peoria, Illinois, where he remained for 
the two following years. He declined the 
position of City Engineer of Peoria to re- 
turn to Troy, to take up a consulting prac- 
tice there, having charge of the construc- 
tion of water works for Mechanicsville, 
New York, and designing and constructing 
several other water works and sewer sys- 
tems in the vicinity of Troy. He was also 
engaged on surveys for the additional wat- 
er supply of the city of Troy and in 1893 
was appointed City Engineer for Troy un- 
der the re-organization of the Public 
Works Department of that City, by which 
the powers of the Public Improvements 
Commission was transferred to the City 



BIOGRAPHICAL CYCLOPEDIA 



287 



Engineer. He was City Engineer of Troy 
until 1895, when he was appointed to the 
position of Engineer and Superintendent 
of the Department of Water of the Board 
of Street and Water Commissioners of 
Newark, New Jersey, in which responsible 
capacity he served with noteworthy credit 
and ability for the following ten years. 

At the end of that period of service he 
was made Chief Engineer of the Board of 
Street and Water Commissioners, of New- 
ark, being the first incumbent to hold that 
position, which was created in June, 1905, 
and which he still retains, his services in 
this connection proving of great public 
value. As Engineer and Superintendent 
of the Water Department of Newark, the 
most important duties performed by Mr. 
Sherrerd were the supervision of carrying 
out the contract between the city and the 
East Jersey Water Company, by which the 
new water supply for the city of Newark 
was acquired, the total cost being $6,000,- 
000. In the settlement of this contract in 
1900 the city was successful in establishing 
its claims not only for the Canistear Reser- 
voir, the possession of which was disputed 
by the Company, but in gaining several 
other concessions in connection with said 
settlement, the most important of which 
was the transfer of the right to divert the 
entire flow of the Pequannock, instead of 
the same being limited to 50,000,000 gal- 
lons per day, as contemplated under the 
original contract: in all of this Mr. Sher- 
rerd figured as a potential factor. The 
operation of the entire plant previous to 
1900 had been under the control of the 
East Jersey Water Company and since 
that date the entire operation has been un- 
der the control of the Water Department 
of the Board of Street and Water Commis- 
sioners, and consequently under Mr. Sher- 
rerd's supervision. 

Next in importance to the settlement of 
the water contract in this branch of the city 
government, during Mr. Sherrerd's admin- 
istration of aflfairs was the construction, 
under his supervision, of Cedar Grove Res- 



ervoir, tunnel and pipe line, which, with its 
great connecting mains to the city reser- 
voirs, cost $1,950,000. The construction of 
this reservoir completed the water supply 
plant of the city of Newark, which can now 
justly claim to possess the best and most 
complete plant of any city of its size in the 
country. The auxiliary high pressure fire 
system was also installed during 'Sir. Sher- 
rerd's incumbency of the position of Engi- 
neer and Superintendent of the Department 
of Water. This addition to the fire fighting 
facilities of the city is supplied by gravity 
with water from the new Cedar Grove Res- 
ervoir, giving an adequate fire service pres- 
sure on the hydrants. The system, as first 
installed, included only Broad and Market 
Streets but it is being gradually extended 
throughout the central part of the city. 
Since Mr. Sherrerd has been in charge of 
all the engineering work of the Board of 
Street and Water Commissioners, this di- 
vision of the Board's work has been a de- 
partment by itself and all the engineering 
work of the Department of Water and of 
streets and sewer construction has been 
brought into harmonious relations. During 
the past two years nearly twice as much 
paving and sewer work was undertaken as 
in any similar period of the city's history. 

Mr. Sherrerd has been connected with 
many of the engineering projects in the 
eastern part of New Jersey since locating in 
Newark, and, in addition to being consult- 
ing engineer for several private companies 
at different times during recent years, he is 
consulting engineer to the State Water Sup- 
ply Commission, recently created by the 
Legislature, and has charge of the water 
matters of the entire State of New Jersey. 
He is also giving a good deal of time to the 
study of the Passaic River pollution ques- 
tion, is a member of the committee repre- 
senting the city of Newark in the considera- 
tion of the proposed trunk sewer with the 
city of Paterson, and is one of the consult- 
ing engineers for the Passaic Valley Sewer- 
age Commissioners. He has been a special 
consulting engineer in connection with vari- 



288 



BIOGRAPHICAL CYCLOPEDIA 



ous large projects and undertakings, one of 
which necessitated a trip to Brazil, South 
America, as representative for some large 
financial interests relative to the develop- 
ment of the resources of a portion of that 
country, making special investigations in re- 
gard to water supply and harbor improve- 
ments for its larger cities. He has also 
been called as an expert in most of the 
water cases which have engrossed the atten- 
tion of the New Jersey courts during the 
last few years. 

Mr. Sherrerd is a past President of the 
American Water Works Association, the 
American Society of Municipal Improve- 
ments, and the Rensselaer Polytechnic In- 
stitute General Alumni. He is a past Di- 
rector of the Board of Direction of the 



American Society of Civil Engineers and 
is a member of the New England Water 
Works Association, the American Society 
for the Testing of Materials, the New Jer- 
sey State Reclamation and Drainage Asso- 
ciation, the New Jersey Sanitary Associa- 
tion, The Engineers' Club, and the Theta 
Delta Chi Club, of New York City, 
the Essex Club of Newark, and the Union 
Club of that city. He is a constant student 
of the problems that confront him in his 
official work and he has become a recog- 
nized authority on all appertaining to water 
works and allied matters. He has reached 
an eminence in his chosen profession that 
stands as evidence of his high ability and 
his achievements in the past present a rec- 
ord of which he may well feel proud. 



PATRICK J. McGUINNESS 

ELIZABETH 



PATRICK J. McGUINNESS, who has 
been active and influential in Demo- 
cratic politics in New Jersey, was born Jan- 
uary I, 1872, in Elizabeth in that State. He 
is the son of Michael and Winifrid (Mur- 
ray) McGuinness. His primary education 
was secured in the schools of the city of 
Newark and was completed in the Univers- 
ity of the city of New York, from which 



institution, in the Veterinary Department, 
he was graduated in 1894. He has been 
active in city affairs since 1897, when he 
was elected a School Commissioner, serv- 
ing in that capacity for two years. He was 
elected County Collector in 1906, and is a 
Trustee of the City Home. He is a mem- 
ber of the Joel Parker Association. 



JOSEPH B. SANFORD 

NEWARK 



JOSEPH B. SANFORD, son of Ga- 
maliel San ford, was born in Caldwell, 
New Jersey, March 22, 1832. He was the 
youngest of four sons, Peter, John and 
Benjamin, and there were also three sis- 
ters, Rebecca, Maud and Eliza. Joseph B. 
Sanford's father, with his two brothers, 
came to this country from England and lo- 



cated in Passaic County, and this settle- 
ment started what is now known as New- 
foundland, New Jersey. 

Joseph B. Sanford received his early ed- 
ucation in the Newark public schools and 
later finished in a private academy of that 
city. In the early part of 1850, when he 
was only eighteen years old, he went to 



BIOGIL\PHICAL CYCLOPEDIA 



289 



California where he engaged in gold min- 
ing for about two years. There he was 
among the pioneers in hydraulic mining and 
also took the first steps in employing 
Chinese labor. Shortly after the gold fever 
had broken out in California, exciting re- 
ports of the fine prospects for mining in 
Australia reached America, and Mr. San- 
ford who was ever ready for new fields to 
explore, and never daunted by danger, left 
California on a sailing vessel, known as the 
Sarah Hooper. On arriving at Australia 
he took an active part in mining interests, 
and continued his energetic work in that 
country for fourteen years. During all that 
time his fertile mind was ever on the alert, 
finding ways and means to keep ahead of 
the times, seeing in advance and opening 
up new regions of country where no human 
foot had ever trod. Several fortunes were 
made and lost during this adventurous 
period, when he not only carried on large 
mining interests, but also did much con- 
tract work for the English government, in 
the line of highway construction. The first 
saw mills ever built in the unexplored for- 
ests of Australia were the results of Mr. 
Sanford's planning and execution. 

About the year 1868 he returned to 
America and continued the contracting bus- 
iness for himself, imtil later he com- 
bined his interests with those of his 
elder brother, Peter San ford, one of 
Newark's largest contractors; with him Mr. 
Sanford continued in the contracting busi- 
ness until his brother's death in 1873. Many 
harbor improvements and railroad ter- 
ininals were constructed by the Sanford 
firm during their term of partnership. In 
1873 the firm of Ross and Sanford was 
formed, and its great success was due in 
large measure to Mr. Sanford's mechanical 
genius, and to his splendid capacity for 
managing the many important details of en- 
gineering which are the basis of successful 
contract work. More terminal construc- 
tion was done under his direction than by 
any other firm in the country. The splendid 
terminals of the West Shore Road bear 



ample testimony to his superior ability in 
this line. 

At the time when the famous Egyptian 
obelisk was shipped to New York, grave 
fears were entertained lest ways and means 
could not be found to remove it from the 
vessel which brought it to America. In this 
dilemma Mr. Sanford's advice was sought, 
and he gave the matter his attention, so 
that he succeeded in unloading the obelisk. 
Later the firm of Ross and Sanford con- 
tracted to deliver it in Central Park, where 
it was placed on its present pedestal under 
Mr. Sanford's personal direction. The 
papers of New York at that time were much 
interested in this fine feat of engineering 
and much praise was given for its success- 
ful finish. The beautiful park in Washing- 
ton which arose from what once had been 
the Potomac Flats is the result of Mr. San- 
ford's ideas in filling in the swamp lands, 
thus removing a danger to the public health 
and comfort. In 1893, after the dissolu- 
tion of the firm of Ross and Sanford, Mr. 
Sanford became the senior partner of the 
firm of Sanford and Brooks, of Baltimore, 
where he remained until his death on July 
4th, 1906. 

Of Mr. Sanford's personal character — 
there is but one word coming alike from 
rich and poor. He was a man of the noblest 
rectitude, unselfish and imtiring in his work 
for others, universally beloved by his hosts 
of friends, and mourned by each and all of 
them as an irreparable loss to the com- 
munity of which he was so honored a mem- 
ber. Of splendid physique, his unbroken 
health kept him in active life up to its hon- 
orable close, and his superior ability in his 
business career made his taking away a seri- 
ous loss. No better or more fitting close to 
this obituary of him can be found than in 
the words of a life long friend of Mr. San- 
ford: 

"Long intercourse with him had taught 
me to appreciate his lofty and lovable na- 
ture, and it was with the utmost pride that 
I felt that our association had led to mutual 
respect and affection. Indeed, no one could 



290 



BIOGRAPHICAL CYCLOPEDIA 



have been brought into such close relations 
with him, without loving him, and he was 
a man who made the world better for being 
in it. His life was a lesson of high-minded 
gentleness and courage, and he died, having 
fulfilled to the utmost the full measure of 
its duties." 

In Australia, in 1867, Mr. Sanford mar- 



ried Margaret Josephine Cummins, of 
Dublin, Ireland. He had two children, 
Mary Cecilia and Joseph King, who died in 
infancy. Mr. Sanford left a widow, Mrs. 
Margaret J. Sanford, a daughter, Mrs. 
Mary Cecilia Shanley and a grandson, Jo- 
seph Sanford Shanley. 



CALEB SHEPPARD TITSWORTH 

NEWARK 



CALEB SHEPPARD TITSWORTH, 
a lawyer and jurist of high ability and 
one of the first members of the Republican 
party in the State of New Jersey, was born 
in Metuchen, Middlesex county. New Jer- 
sey, September 16, 1826. He died in New- 
ark, May 28, 1886. He was the son of 
Abraham Dunham Titsworth and Juliet 
Fitz Randolph, and through both parents 
was descended from old and notable Amer- 
ican ancestry. Receiving an excellent ed- 
ucation and endowed with mental gifts of 
a high order, he took charge of the Shiloh 
Academy in Cumberland county. New Jer- 
sey, when he was only eighteen years of 
age, in which connection he demonstrated 
his capacity and proved his intellectual 
strength. He read law with Judge John T. 
Nixon, of Bridgeton, and was graduated 
with high honors from Union College in 
the class of 1850, with the degree of bach- 
elor of arts. He then became a classical 
teacher in the Brighton, Mississippi, Gram- 
mar School, remaining there until 1853, 
when he decided to return to his native 
State and complete his law studies, which 
he did in the office of Joseph Annin in 
Plainfield, subsequently becoming a student 
under Chancellor Runyon in Newark. 

Judge Titsworth was admitted to the bar 
of New Jersey as an attorney in Novem- 
ber, 1855, and as a counselor in November, 
1858. He established himself in the prac- 
tice of his profession in Newark, where he 
was speedily recognized as a leader of the 



Essex county bar. He secured a large and 
influential clientilc, and in the course of 
his career was successfully identified with 
a great deal of important litigation, figur- 
ing in many of the more notable cases of 
his day. He was elected City Counsel of 
Newark in January, 1866, but resigned that 
office in March, 1867, to become Prosecu- 
tor of the Pleas of Essex county, in which 
capacity he added materially to his reputa- 
tion and performed the functions of the po- 
sition with an ability that was exceptional. 
In 1874 he became President Judge of the 
Court of Common Pleas of Essex County, 
serving for a period of five years and gain- 
ing distinction as a jurist. He dignified the 
bench by his presence thereon and his ju- 
dicial decisions were characterized by 
learning, impartiality and all those essential 
qualities most to be desired in a judge of 
the courts. 

A life-long Republican in his political 
principles. Judge Titsworth was one of 
those who helped to found the party in his 
own State and he always gave the organi- 
zation his best efforts in the campaigns 
that followed. His opinions carried weight 
in party councils and he was looked up to 
as one of the Republican leaders of New 
Jersey. He was one of the chief organ- 
izers and subsequently a director and coun- 
sel of the Merchants' Insurance Company 
of Newark. Personally, he was respected 
by all who knew him and he was a repre- 




C . \/^ VTxt>«tt,^/— *-t^^ ' 



# 





BIOGRAPHICAL CYCLOPEDIA 



291 



sentative citizen of Newark in the fullest 
sense of the term. Judge Titsworth was 
married in Xoveniber, 1858, to Frances 
Caroline Grant, daughter of Charles Grant, 
of Newark, by whom lie had the following 
named children: Charles Grant Titsworth, 
of Newark; Caroline Juliet Titsworth, 



Mary Titsworth, now the wife of the Rev- 
erend Livingston L. Taylor, residing in 
Canandaigua, New York; Frances Tits- 
worth, now the wife of James P. Dusen- 
berry, of Newark, and Frederick Sheppard 
Titsworth, of Denver, Colorado. Tlie first 
daughter died in infancy. 



CHARLES GRANT TITSWORTH 

NEWARK 



CHARLES GR.\NT TITSWORTH, 
son of Caleb Sheppard and Frances 
Caroline (Grant) Titsworth, was born 
June 14, i860. A sketch of his father ap- 
pears on another page of this book. His 
mother Frances Caroline Grant w'as the 
daughter of Charles Grant, who was one of 
Newark's sturdy citizens of the early part 
of the last century, and traced her descent 
from Robert Treat, the leader of the first 
settlers of the town in 1666. 

Charles Grant Titsworth was educated 
in the Newark Academy and was graduated 
from Princeton College in 1881 with hon- 
ors. Then taking a course in the Law 
School of Columbia University, he was 
graduated therefrom in 1884. and in the 
same year was admitted to practice at the 
bar of New Jersey, and entered upon his 
profession as a partner of his father. He 
became a counsellor in 1887, and then en- 
tered into a law partnership with Edward 
M. Colie. In 1889 for reasons of health he 
removed to Colorado, and remained a resi- 
dent of Denver of that State until 1896. 
During the six and a half years that he 
spent in Colorado, he practiced law, and 
was also active in the work of the Central 
Presbyterian Church and Sunday school in 
that city. He became interested in the 
Municipal Reform movement, and running 
for city supervisor, led his ticket. He was 
chairman of the Reform Committee during 
the county campaign which followed, and 
which was successful in wresting several of 



the most important offices from the old par- 
ties. 

Upon his return to Newark, Mr. Tits- 
worth again became a partner with Edward 
M. Colie, Francis J. Swayze, who is now on 
the Supreme Court Bench, being also a 
member of the firm. In 1899 'le entered 
the service of the Fidelity Trust Company, 
as title officer, which position he still holds 
in 1909. He has been interested in and 
prominently identified with municipal af- 
fairs, especially in movements for the bet- 
terment of city life. In 1903, he began in 
the Board of Trade an agitation for the 
planting and care of shade trees in Newark. 
This led to the formation of the Newark 
Shade Tree Commission, a body of three 
men who have the exclusive control of the 
trees in the public streets, with power to 
I)lant, and to assess property owners for 
the expense thereof. Mayor Henry ^L 
Doremus appointed him a member of the 
first commission to attend to this work and 
he served as secretary for one year in the 
pioneer work, which followed the organiza- 
tion. In the following four years he was 
president of the commission, and during the 
period of his ser\ice nearly 11.000 trees 
were planted in the streets of Newark. The 
city parks were put in the care of the com- 
mission and have been beautified as never 
before. The work was novel. Newark 
being the first large city in the country 
which ever conducted such a plan. Since 



292 



BIOGRAPHICAL CYCLOPEDIA 



then, however, the Shade Tree Commission 
idea has been adopted by many cities, towns 
and smaller municipalities throughout the 
country. 

During the panic of 1907, Mr. Titsworth 
organized a free employment bureau, and 
was made chairman of the committee of 
citizens which conducted it. In the short 
period during which it seemed necessary to 
conduct this enterprise about 360 men re- 
ceived employment through its efforts. For 
many years, Mr. Titsworth has been deeply 
interested in the work of the Bureau of As- 
sociated Charities, of which he is a director. 
He was chairman of the Committee made 



up of several Cliaritable Societies for the 
distribution of milk to infants of the poor, 
and has been active in the fight against 
tuberculosis in Newark and New Jersey. 
For five years (1902-1907) he was Super- 
intendent of the Sunday School of the First 
Presbyterian Church of Newark, and for 
many years has been a trustee, and of late 
an elder of that church. He is a trustee of 
and counsel for Job Haines Home for Aged 
People. 

He married Elizabeth Linen Dawson, 
daughter of Ichabod W. Dawson, of New- 
ark, June 4, 1901. His children are Char- 
lotte Grant Titsworth and Grant Titsworth. 



GEORGE WARD CROSS 

NEWARK 



GEORGE WARD CROSS, President 
of Cross & Plum, Inc., real estate 
operators, was born July 30, 1877, on the 
Goodwill Plantation, at Acton, in Richland 
County, South Carolina, owned by his fath- 
er, Hiram Williamson Davis Cross. His 
paternal ancestors for several generations 
were prominent in the business life of New- 
ark. His great-grandfather, George Cross, 
came from Albany, New York, and was 
one of the leading citizens of Newark. He 
was a dry-goods merchant of prominence 
and conducted a store on Broad street, op- 
posite Trinity Church. He married Ruth 
Hatch, of Connecticut, in 1835. Their son, 
George W. Cross, born in Newark, the 
grandfather of the subject of this sketch, 
was a successful merchant and real estate 
investor in Newark. He married Irene 
Davis, born in Harrison, New Jersey, 
daughter of the late Mark Davis, one of the 
early settlers of Harrison, New Jersey, who 
came from Sussex County. The mother of 
George W. Cross, Elizabeth Ward Wooley, 
was born in Newark, a daughter of the 
late James Wooley, who achieved promi- 
ence locally as a manufacturer of hats. 



He was a native of Stockport, Eng- 
land, whence he came to Newark, hav- 
ing previously married, in 1850, Jane 
Ward, daughter of Joseph Ward, of Bred- 
bury, and Stockport, England, founder 
of the great English hat manufacturing 
concern bearing his name to-day. 

George W. Cross was educated in the 
public schools of Newark, supplemented by 
an academic course at Bishop's College, 
Lenoxville, Province of Quebec, Canada. 
Having determined to devote his career to 
law and real estate transactions, he decided 
to become well grounded in real estate law, 
and for that purpose entered the New York 
University Law School, where he took a 
special course on real property under 
Frank H. Sommer, during 1899 and 1900, 
having read law with George M. Titus, of 
Newark, for some three years previous. He 
also made an extensive study of leaseholds, 
taxes, etc., in Europe. 

After finishing his studies, he entered 
the real estate business alone at No. 776 
Broad street, Newark, but later removed 
his offices to Broad and Baink streets, sub- 



BIOGRAPHICAL CYCLOPEDIA 



293 



sequently forming a partnership with \Vil- 
ham T. Harris in association with wlioni 
he conducted a profitable ami agreeable 
business. Mr. Harris retired, and short- 
ly' thereafter the business was incorporated 
under the firm name of Cross and Plum, 
William T. Plum, becoming interested in 
the business and actively participating in 
its affairs. Later, enlargements became 
necessary and Littleton Kirkpatrick, son of 
the late Honorable Andrew Kirkpatrick 
and Roger Young, son of the late Henry 
Young, Prosecutor of Essex County be- 
came actively interested in the corporation. 
The company now established at Broad and 
Clinton streets has become recognized as 
one of the representative associations of 
real estate operators and appraisers in Es- 
sex County. Mr. Cross represents the Es- 



sex County Park Commission as expert 
ajjjiraiser in purchase and condemnation 
proceedings. 

Politically, Mr. Cross is a strong sup- 
porter of the principles of the Republican 
Party and takes a keen interest on and oflf 
the stump in all public questions. He has 
been a member of the Limited Franchise 
League since its inception and of the 
Fourth Ward, Vailsburg, Belleville, and 
Clinton Hill Improvement Associations, 
Newark Elks No. 21, besides numerous 
other organizations. He is very sociable 
and an adept at story telling in Scotch and 
negro dialect, participating frequently as 
end man in club minstrels. He is particu- 
larly interested in art and in out-door sports 
and is a member of the .Automobile Club 
and of the Indian League. He is unmarried. 



JOHN FRANKLIN FORT 

EAST ORANGE 



JOHN FRANKLIN FORT, son of An- 
drew Heisler and Hannah Ann 
(Brown) Fort, was born in Pemberton, 
Burlington County, New Jersey, March 20, 
1852. His family was one of the oldest 
and most distinguished in New Jersey. The 
Forts are of Welsh origin and the Ameri- 
can branch was founded by Roger Fort, 
who came to this country from Wales as 
early as 1696, settling in Pemberton, then 
New Mills. John Fort, the great-grand- 
father of John Franklin Fort, served in the 
war of the Revolution as a private in the 
Burlington County Militia. 

John Franklin Fort was educated in 
Mount Holly Institute and Pemberton Sem- 
inary, and subsequently read law with Ewan 
Merritt. of Mount Holly, Garret S. Can- 
non, of Bordentown, and Chief Justice Ed- 
ward N. Paxson. of Pennsylvania. He was 
admitted to the bar of New Jersey as an at- 
torney in November, 1873, and as a coun- 
selor in November, 1876, having received 



the degree of Bachelor of Laws from the 
Albany. (New York) Law School in 1872. 
He established himself in the practice of his 
profession in Newark in 1874, where he has 
since remained a member of the bar. He 
was journal clerk of the New Jersey As- 
sembly in 1873-1874 and served as Judge of 
the First District Court of Newark from 
1878 to 1886, being appointed by (jovernor 
George B. McClellan and reappointed by 
Governor George C. Ludlow : but he re- 
signed in the third year of his second term. 
Governor Fort has been conspicuous in 
New Jersey political life since 1872. For 
three years he was a member and in 1889 
the vice-chairman of the Republican State 
Cnmrnittee. He was chairman of the State 
Republican Conventions of i88g and 1895. 
and one of the most active leaders in the 
reform movement which resulted in the 
election of John W. Griggs as Governor. 
In 1895 he was appointed by Governor 
Wcrts for a term of five years as a com- 



294 



BIOGRAPHICAL CYCLOPEDIA 



missioner to confer with other commis- 
sioners from all the States in the Union for 
the purpose of bringing about uniform laws 
in each State. 

He was a delegate to the Republican Na- 
tional Conventions of 1884 and 1896, and in 
the latter year had the distinction of placing 
Garret A. Hobart in nomination for the 
vice-presidency. He was a member of the 
State Constitutional Commission of 1894 
and on December i, 1896, was appointed by 
Governor Griggs as President Judge of the 
Essex County Court of Common Pleas, to 
succeed the Honorable Andrew Kirkpat- 
rick, who had resigned ; in this capacity he 
served with ability and honor, firmly estab- 
lishing his reputation as a jurist of learn- 
ing, dignity and impartiality, who was a 
credit to the seat he occupied. He was elect- 
ed Governor of the State of New Jersey 
on the Republican ticket in 1906 and re- 
elected in 1908. His administration as chief 
executive of the State has been able and 
clean, public affairs being treated in the in- 
terests of the people at large and with a 
view to the best government possible. 

He was one of the founders, and since 
July, 1895, has been president of the East 
Orange National Bank ; was one of the pro- 
moters and subsequently counsel of the Se- 
curity Savings Bank of Newark ; was for 
many years a director of the Manufactur- 
ers' National Bank of Newark ; and also 



has served as counsel for the Delaware, 
Lackawanna and Western Railroad Com- 
pany and other important interests. He 
holds membership in several social and 
other organizations, including the Sons of 
the American Revolution. He married, 
April 20, 1876, Charlotte E. Stainsby, 
daughter of the Honorable William and 
Margaret (Ballard) Stainsby, of Newark. 
Franklin W. Fort, only son of Governor 
John Franklin and Charlotte E. (Stainsby) 
Fort, was born in East Orange, New Jer- 
sey, March 30, 1880. He received his edu- 
cation in the Lawrenceville Academy, after- 
ward entering Princeton University, from 
which institution he was graduated in the 
class of 1900. He was admitted to the bar 
of New Jersey as an attorney in 1903 and 
as a counselor in 1907. He established him- 
self in practice in Newark and was success- 
ful from the beginning, having inherited his 
father's abilities to a marked degree. He is 
a member of the firm of MacLear & Fort. 
He makes his home in East Orange and 
served as Recorder of that town, in which 
judicial capacity he acquitted himself with 
the fullest credit. He is a Republican in his 
political convictions and, like his father, has 
taken an active part in the work of the party 
from the very outset of his career. He be- 
longs to several clubs and other social or- 
ganizations. 



FRANK H. SOMMER 

NEWARK 



FRANK H. SOMMER, was born of 
German parentage September 3, 1872, 
in Newark, and is a self-made man in the 
fullest sense of that term. Before he was 
six years of age, he attended the old 
Green Street German and English school, 
and later entered the Washington Street 
Public school, from which he was gradu- 
ated when but twelve years of age. Dur- 



ing his school days he found it necessary 
to contribute to his own support, and sold 
newspapers in the hours when he was not 
attending school. After leaving school he 
became an office boy for a real estate 
broker, and at once displayed those quali- 
ties which have enabled him to advance to 
the high position which he now occupies. 
His employer becoming involved in diffi- 





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BIOGRAPHICAL CYCLOPEDIA 



295 



culties, was indicted for perjury and young 
Sommer became an iiiipcirtant witness in 
the case. Mr. W. B. Guild, the lawyer who 
examined him, was so impressed with his 
knowledge and the clearness of his state- 
ments, that he at once engaged him for of- 
fice work, and gave a new direction to his 
life. 

While employed in the office of Mr. 
Guild, he registered with the Metropolis 
Law School of New York as a student, 
and supplemented his daily work by his 
evening studies in New York City. In 
1893 he was graduated from Metropolis 
Law School as the honor man of his class, 
and in the same year returned to the 
school as a lecturer, his subject being 
"Pleading at the Common Law." In 1895 
he was made a professor of the same law 
school and when it was merged with the 
law department of the New York Law 
University, he continued with the Univer- 
sity as a lecturer on "Real Property, Mort- 
gages and Suretyship," a relationship 
which has continued until the present time. 
He has been honored by the University 
with the degrees of Bachelor of Laws, 
Master of Laws and Doctor of Jurispru- 
dence, and upon the death of Austin Ab- 
bott he was called to the important posi- 
tion of editor of the "University Law Re- 
view." 

In 1893, immediately after his gradua- 
tion, he was admitted to practice in New 
Jersey, and became a member of the firm 
of Guild, Lum & Sommer. At the age of 
twenty-five he was made a counsellor at 
law and established a reputation in his 
profession. Ill health compelled him to 
withdraw from the firm he had entered, 
and for a time he devoted himself to teach- 
ing and lecturing. Regaining his strength, 
he again entered active practice as a mem- 
ber of the law firm of Sommer & Adams, 
and has occupied a commanding position 
at the bar of the state. He has been a 
member of the State Board of Examiners 
upon the admission of the attorneys and 
counsellors, and has been president of the 



Lawyers' Club. In 1904 he was elected a 
member of the Board of Education, but his 
election to the office of sheriff of Essex 
County, in 1905, by a plurality of 16,000, 
compelled him to resign before he hatl com- 
pleted the first year of his term. In 1908 
he was appointed by Governor Fort a mem- 
ber of the State Board of Railroad Com- 
missioners. 

The story of what was known as the 
"Roseville movement" is largely made up 
of the energy and fighting qualities of 
I-"rank H. Sommer. l-'arly in 1903 a cat- 
astrophe happened in the Roseville neigh- 
borhood. A trolley car filled with High 
School children was run into by a Lacka- 
wanna train at the Clifton Avenue grade 
crossing and a half score of pupils — most 
of them young girls — lost their lives. It 
was the beginning of the great fight in Es- 
sex County against many forms of corpor- 
ate injustice. At a meeting of the Rose- 
ville citizens Sommer declared that the 
people themselves were largely to blame. 

"We have been sluggards," he said. "It 
was our duty to see to it that those in power 
made the trolley company and the railroad 
company do away with these dangerous 
crossings. The cornorer's jury and the 
grand jury will settle the c|uestion as to the 
real blame, but we are all morally respon- 
s'ible. Now don't let us waste time in un- 
fruitful criticism, but let us set to work and 
see that something is done." 

This was a clear call to action and some- 
thing was done. Sommer was appointed 
chairman of a committee on resolutions, 
and the resolutions bristled with an ar- 
raignment of existing wrongs and a demand 
for their correction. They went beyond 
the immediate cause of disaster, and 
broached the underlying (|uestion of the 
rights of the people under the franchises 
which these corporations held. Sommer 
appeared everywhere, speaking eloquently 
for the al)olition of the death traps known 
as railroad grade crossings, and an aroused 
public sentiment brought about in time the 
desired result. The Roseville movement 



296 



BIOGRAPHICAL CYCLOPEDIA 



grew to a city organization and he became 
its counsel. At public meetings, at hear- 
ings before the Board of Works and the 
Legislature — everywhere he voiced the de- 
mands of the people. 



Politically a Republican, he became a 
powerful advocate of the principles of his 
party and labored indefatigably to advance 
the interests of the progressive reforms of 
that party in the State of New Jersey. 



CHARLES H. BIGGS 

MILLVILLE 



CHARLES H. BIGGS was born in 
Millville, New Jersey, June ig, 1873. 
He is the son of Dennis and Sophia (Ben- 
nett) Biggs. His father was born in Mill- 
ville, where he still resides, being engaged 
as a glass blower with the Whitall-Tatum 
Company. Mr. Biggs' mother was born in 
Hamilton, New Jersey. He comes of a 
vigorous and long-lived family. One of his 
great grandparents, Samuel Penn, who died 
at the age of ninety-six years, was a strong 
and hearty man almost to the time of his 
death, having been in the habit of walking 
ten miles each day during the last two years 
of his life. 

The subject of this sketch is a self-made 
man. He attended the public schools of 
Millville until he had attained the age of 
nine years when he gave up school life and 
entered the glass works of the Whitall- 
Tatum Company as an apprentice. At the 
age of sixteen he removed to Newfield, 
New Jersey, where he became a bottler of 
mineral water and in connection with this 



occupation was ware inspector for the 
Whitall-Tatum Company, and the Berdine 
Glass Company of Williamstown, New 
Jersey. In 1908 he was appointed city mar- 
shall of Millville, his appointment being 
contested by the previous encumbent of 
the office, but the controversy was decided 
in favor of Mr. Biggs. Not only is he a 
Republican, but the men of his family on 
both the paternal and maternal sides have 
always belonged to the Republican Party 
since its organization, and Mr. Biggs has 
been one of the hard workers for its suc- 
cess at the poles. He fills the office of city 
marshall with credit to the town and to 
himself. 

He is a member of the organization of 
Red Men of New Jersey. He married 
Miss Virginia Hartman, daughter of 
Charles and Mollie Hartman, formerly of 
Greensprings, Virginia, but now residents 
of Newfield, New Jersey. They have one 
child, a son, Harold C. Biggs. 



SAMUEL WHITE BELDON 

EAST ORANGE 



SAMUEL W. BELDON was born in 
Bordentown, New Jersey, April 4, 1861. 
Flis parents were Joseph Beldon, a native 
of Woodbury, New Jersey, and Jane A. 
(Kester) Beldon, who was born in Borden- 
town. Joseph Beldon was a clergyman of 



the Baptist Church and under his direction 
Samuel W. Beldon, the subject of this biog- 
raphy, received his early education. Enter- 
ing the New Jersey Collegiate Institute, he 
prepared himself for teaching school, a vo- 
cation which he followed for four years. 





WM 




BIOGRAPHICAL CYCLOPEDIA 



297 



Having decided to make the study and 
practice of law his Ufe work, he began read- 
ing law while teaching school, becoming a 
student in the ottice of Judge James Bu- 
chanan, of Trenton, who afterward repre- 
sented his district in the United States Con- 
gress. 

Admitted to the bar as an attorney in 
June, 1882, he began practice in Borden- 
town. Six months later he entered into 
partnership with his preceptor. Judge Bu- 
chanan, under the firm name of Buchanan 
& Beldon, an association which was con- 
tinued for about a year. In January, 1884, 
Mr. Beldon removed to Camden, where he 
continued in practice until 1903. During 
this time he was connected with much im- 
portant litigation brought before the courts 
in South Jersey. Possessed of a naturally 
brilliant mind and endowed by nature with 
strong personal magnetism, his advance- 
ment in his profession was both iai)id and 
strong. He soon earned for himself a high 
place at the bar of his state, and became 
recognized as a lawyer of sound judgment 
and of profound learning. He was fre- 
quently called in as counsel by associates in 
many very important cases. On April 6, 
1895, he was appointed by Judge Charles G. 
Garrison one of two commissioners to in- 
vestigate the municipal affairs of the county 
and city of Camden, a duty which was dis- 
charged with much credit and satisfaction. 
In 1903 he associated himself with Hon. E. 
B. Leaming, (now vice-chancellor), under 
the firm name of Beldon & Leaming, which 
association was discontinued by Mr. Beldon 



in 1903, to accept his present position as 
general counsel of the Fidelity Trust Co., 
of Newark. 

Politically, Air. Beldon has been a strong 
advocate of the principles of the Republi- 
can party, and has actively participated in 
the campaigns of his party. He was chair- 
man of the executive committee of the Re- 
publican county committee of Burlington 
County for a number of years and in 1900 
was a delegate to the National Convention 
at Philadelphia which nominated William 
•McKiniey for President and Theodore 
Roosevelt for Vice-President of the United 
States. Although never desiring political 
fiosition, he ever took an active part as a 
patriot for what he believed to be right and 
best for the people at large. He is a mem- 
ber of Hope Lodge, Free and Accepted 
Masons and a number of .social organiza- 
tions. He is interested in athletics, a lover 
of outdoor sports, being particularly inter- 
ested in golf, and is a member of the Forest 
Hill Golf and the Baltustrol Golf Club. He 
is a member of the First Baptist Church in 
East Orange, a member of the official board 
and also of the board of managers of the 
New Jersey Baptist State Convention. He 
is also a member of the advisory board of 
the Baptist Home for the Aged in Newark, 
and |)resident of the Young Men's Chris- 
tian .Association of the Oranges. 

He married June 29, 1893, at Borden- 
town. New Jersey, Sarah Shrevc, daughter 
of the late Mahlon F. Shreve of Borden- 
town. They are the parents of one child, 
Joseph W'illard Beldon. 



GEORGE L. WARREN, M. 

NEWARK 



D. 



Gi:ORGE L. W.ARREN, M. D., who 
lias acquired distinction as one of the 
rising young physicians of Newark, was 
born in that city, December 16, 1874. 
His paternal grandfather resided at 



Warwick, New York, and was of English 
descent, while his grandmother came of 
old Dutch-Holland stock. Through his 
maternal grandparents, he traces his line- 
age to an old and respected German an- 



298 



BIOGRAPHICAL CYCLOPEDIA 



cestry. Dr. Warren received his rudimen- 
tary education in the Newark public 
schools. Having decided upon medicine as 
the profession best adapted to his taste, he 
entered the Medical Department of Colum- 
bia University, from which he was gradu- 
ated in 1899. He immediately established 
himself in practice in his native city and 
speedily attained repute as a skillful prac- 
titioner. Thoroughly versed in the science 
to which he devotes himself, and endowed 
with a natural ability of a high order, he has 
gained a creditable place for himself among 
the leading physicians of his section. 

Dr. Warren served as a member of 
the Newark School Board from 1902 to 
1907, and the subject of education being 



one that appealed to him most earnestly, 
he proved himself one of the most valuable 
members of the body in question. In 1908 
he was appointed to a place in the Newark 
Board of Health, in which capacity he has 
rendered useful service to the community 
at large by intelligent efforts in its behalf. 
Dr. Warren holds membership in Eureka 
Lodge, Free and Accepted Masons, of 
Newark. He is also a member of Alamo 
Council, Royal Arcanum, and of Newark 
Lodge No. 21, Benevolent and Protective 
Order of Elks. He is popular in all these 
organizations. Dr. Warren was married 
in 1906 and has one son, born August 27, 
1907. 



JOHN REYNOLDS 

PATERSON 



JOHN REYNOLDS, who for thirty 
years was prominent in financial affairs 
in Paterson, was a native of Ireland, born 
in Portadown, County Armagh, March 11, 
1826, and died in Paterson, New Jersey, 
January 6, 1909. He was the son of Thom- 
as and Agnes (McCulloch) Reynolds, who 
came to America in 1827, bringing with 
them their infant son. The parents settled 
first in Rockland County, New York, and 
shortly afterward removed to Bergen 
County, New Jersey; in 1833 they removed 
to Paterson. 

John Reynolds was educated in the coun- 
try schools, receiving a good common school 
education, which, however, ended at the 
time that he was ten years of age. Then he 
was apprenticed to a tailor, but not becoming 
interested in that employment he learned 
the trade of tobacco, snuff and cigar manu- 
facturing, under the late Stephen Allen. In 
1852 he entered into partnership with 
Stephen and John Allen, under the fimi 
name of Allen, Reynolds & Co., and for 
twenty years was associated with these 



men, and with Alpheus Allen. In 1872 the 
business was sold and Mr. Reynolds re- 
tired. Previous to that time he had become 
interested in financial and banking aft'airs 
in Paterson, and in 1864 was one of the 
organizers of the First National Bank of 
Paterson, being a member of the first board 
of directors of that institution. At the time 
of his death he was vice-president of that 
bank, which position he had held since Jan- 
uary, 1884. He was one of the incorpora- 
tors of the Paterson Savings Institution, of 
which institution he was elected vice-presi- 
dent January 14, 1873, and president Jan- 
uary II, 1876, holding the latter position at 
the time of his death. In 1872 he was elect- 
ed president of the Paterson Gas Light 
Company, and remained at the head of that 
concern for a long term of years; and up 
to 1889, he was for many years the presi- 
dent of the Acquackanonk Water Com- 
pany. It was largely through his labors 
and through his able financial direction that 
the Paterson Savings Institution attained 
the high rank which it holds among the 




:y Luij L'. ny^- 



^^^y^"^^^ 



<t£^ 



^^o^.i>^c>6^ 



BIOGRAPHICAL CYCLOPEDIA 



299 



banking institutions of the state. His suc- 
cess as a financier and the pubhc confidence 
reposed in him was shown by his frequent 
selection to manage large estates and trust 
funds. 

A Republican in his political affiliations, 
Mr. Reynolds was deeply interested in pub- 
lic affairs, but was not inclined to public 
office. Nevertheless, he was a member of 
the Board of Education of Paterson in 1859 
and i860, where his services were of a val- 
uable character. In 1865 he was elected a 
member of the Board of .\ldcrmen from 
the Fourth Ward of Paterson. While serv- 
ing in that body he and the late Halmagh 
Van Winkle were a committee for the pur- 
chase of the present Poor House Farm of 
the city. For many years Mr. Reynolds 
was a member of the City Blues Artillery 
Company of Paterson, a company which 
went to the Civil War, and was never re- 
organized after the termination of that con- 
flict. He was a member of the Hamilton 
Club, of Paterson, and of the North Jersey 
Country Club, but he devoted most of his 
time and energj' not to social affairs, but to 
the various business interests in which he 
was engaged. He has travelled extensively 
throughout the United States, also in Mex- 
ico, Cuba and Europe. He was a member 



of the Methodist Church in his early life, 
but later attended the Second Presbyterian 
Church. Interested in benevolent and phil- 
anthropic activities, he was a liberal con- 
tributor to various charities. 

In 1848, Mr. Reynolds married in Pater- 
son, Elizabeth Kcmpley. The children of 
this union were Wallace Reynolds, who 
died in 1862; Alfred C. Reynolds, who is 
unmarried : Edwin L. Reynolds, who mar- 
ried in 18S1 Margaret T. Hewson, his chil- 
dren being Edwin Ten Eyck Reynolds, who 
died in 1905, Wallace Reynolds, and Eliza- 
beth Kemjiley Reynolds ; John H. Rey- 
nolds, who married in 1881 Cora C. 
Stevens of Buffalo, and is a member 
of the Board of Managers and the 
Finance Committee, and is Counsel for the 
Paterson Savings Institution, his children 
being Kate Bcrgin, wife of Dr. Joseph \'. 
Bergin, Beatrix Reynolds, John S. Rey- 
nolds and Doris Reynolds; I-izzie Reynolds 
Atterbury, wife of George S. Atterbury, 
her children being Kirby Atterbury, Eliza- 
beth Kemi)ley Atterbury, John Reynolds 
Atterbury, and Christina M. Atterbury; 
and Mary R. Edwards, wife of Charles 
Edwards, who has one son Charles Ed- 
wards, Jr. 



ANTHONY G. KROEHL, JR. 

NEWARK 



ANTHONY G. KROEHL, JR., of 
Xewark, New Jersey, is the son of An- 
thony G. Kroehl, Sr., and Margaret Koch. 
His father was born in Newark and his 
mother is a native of Germany. Mr. Kroehl 
was born in Newark, November 5, 1875. He 
was educated in St. Peter's Roman Catho- 
lic Parochial School, the Morton Street 
Public School, and the Newark Public High 
School, being graduated from the last men- 
tioned institution in June, 1892. Having 
completed his education, he entered the em- 



ploy of the Newark Hat Case Company as 
an office boy. Two years later he took a 
similar position with Christian Feigcnspan, 
a corporation engaged in the brewing busi- 
ness in Newark. Since that time he has re- 
mained steadily in the service of that cor- 
poration, having gradually risen in position 
until, at the present time in 1909, he is 
cashier of the corporation. 

Mr. Kroehl is a member of the Board of 
Directors and recording secretary of the 
Gottfried Krueger Association, financial 



300 



BIOGRAPHICAL CYCLOPEDIA 



secretary of tlie Newark Yunger Maenner, 
K. U. v., and a member of the Board of 
Directors of the Chapel Building and Loan 
Association of St. Peter's Young Men's 
Orphan Aid Society, West End Democratic 
Club and several other social organizations. 
He has been actively interested in politics 
for many years and in 1907 was elected a 



member of the Board of Aldermen of New- 
ark from the Fourteenth Ward, defeating 
his opponent by a vote of almost two to 
one. In the Aldermanic Board, he was 
a member of several important commit- 
tees, and was also a member of the 
Board of Trustees of the Newark City 
Home. 



MYRON CHANDLER ERNST 

JERSEY CITY 



M 



YRON CHANDLER ERNST, one 
of the younger generation of lawyers 
of the State of New Jersey was born in 
New York City, June 3, 1879. He is the 
son of Mark and Lena Ernst, both his 
father and mother having been residents 
of Jersey City for over forty years. He 
received his elementary education in the 
public schools of Jersey City, and then 
studied law in the New York Law School. 
Subsequently, he studied law in the office 
of Randolph, Condict & Black. 

A Democrat politically, he was a mem- 
ber of the Legislature in 1904 and 1905, 
and a reading clerk of the New Jersey 
Legislature in 1907. While he was a mem- 
ber of the Legislature he contended earn- 
estly for equal taxation and other bills in 
the interest of the general public. Al- 
though particularly active in pressing the 
famous anti-pigeon shooting bill, which 
was introduced by him, as he was a Dem- 



ocrat, the Republican house refused to 
pass the bill. After the adjournment of 
the Legislature, public opinion was so 
strong in condemning the defeat of the 
bill, and demanding its passage, that Gov- 
ernor Murphy called an extra session at 
which the bill was passed, and is now a 
law. 

Mr. Ernst is actively interested in the 
various charities of Jersey City, and is a 
member of various fraternal and benefit 
organizations, being a Mystic Shriner, a 
Thirty-second degree Mason, a member of 
the Benevolent Protective Order of Elks 
in Lodge No. 211, a member of the 
Knights of Pythias, of the Ancient Order 
of Foresters and the Royal Arcanum. He 
belongs to the Progress Club, and the 
Robert Davis Association. He has de- 
voted some of his time to literary pursuits 
and is the author of a "History of the 
Jews of New Jersey." 



THEODORE MANDEVILLE WOODLAND 

NEWARK AND WEST ORANGE 



THEODORE MANDEVILLE 

WOODLAND, one of the leading 
jewelry manufacturers of the United 
States was born in Newark, New Jersey. 
He was educated in the public schools and 



in St. Paul's Preparatory School, and after 
leaving school entered the employ of H. 
Elcox & Co., of Newark. In 1890 he be- 
came a junior member of the firm of Lar- 
ter, Elcox & Co., with which concern he re- 






lUMidj 



BIOGRAPHICAL CYCLOPEDIA 



301 



mained five years, when in 1895 he with- 
drew to become the junior member of tlie 
firm of Jones & Woodland, which in 1905 
was incorporated under the name of Jones 
& Woodland Company, of which Mr. 
Woodland is Vice-President and Treas- 
urer. This company makes a specialty of 
manufacturing high grade rings. 

Mr. Woodland is also Treasurer of the 
Brasler Company, which manufactures the 
highest grade of jewelry and is also active 
in other business lines, being a director of 



the Union National Rank, the Essex Coun- 
ty Trust Co., of East Orange, and the first 
National Bank of West Orange, being one 
of the organizers of the last named institu- 
tion. 

Socially, Mr. Woodland is a member of 
the Essex Club, the Union Club and the 
Garfield Club of Newark, the Essex Coun- 
ty Country Club of West Orange, and the 
Jewelers' Club of Philadelphia. He has al- 
ways been a Republican, and has taken an 
active part in public affairs. 



JOHN EDWARD HELM 

NEWARK 



JOHN EDWARD HELM, one of the 
most successful and best known lawyers 
of the younger generation in Eastern New 
Jersey, was born in Newark, August 20, 
1878. His father was George W. Helm 
and his mother Bertha (Nittinger) Helm. 
Both his parents were natives of Newark. 
Mr. Helm's elementary education was 
secured in the Newark public schools, in 
private German and English schools, and 
in the New York preparatory schools. He 
also had the advantage of private instruc- 
tion in foreign languages. His collegiate 
education was secured in the New York 
University where he was a member of the 
class of 1899. After completing his educa- 
tion he studied law with the late Howard 
W. Hayes, George S. Duryee, Edward H. 
Duryee and George H. Lambert. Com- 
pleting his legal studies he was admitted to 
practice at the New Jersey bar in February, 
1900, and in the following year he became 
associated in partnership with Howard W. 
Hayes, which partncrsiiip continued for 
two years, until the death of Mr. Hayes. 
Tlicn he entered into partnership with Ed- 
ward H. Duryee under the firm name of 
Duryee & Helm, and continued this asso- 
ciation until the death of Mr. Duryee in 
1906. when he associated himself with Her- 



bert W. Knight, founding the law firm of 
Helm & Knight. 

Early in his legal career, he took up as a 
specialty the profession of Trust Estate 
Law, Corporation and Patent practice. In 
this specialty he has achieved great suc- 
cess, and made himself one of the recog- 
nized authorities. He has been the repre- 
sentative, since 1902, of Thomas A. Edison 
and of the interests of that great inventor 
as counsel in his commercial and corpora- 
tion matters in every state in the Union 
and in Europe. Of this work he has taken 
personal charge and in its prosecution has 
traveled to all parts of the United States. 
During the last ten years, the magnitude 
of his operations and the high standing in 
which he is held by his clients is shown by 
the fact that he represents many other 
corporations and numerous estates. In all 
of the many affairs that have been en- 
trusted to him, he has been uniformly suc- 
cessful, and his work has been fully satis- 
factory to his clients. 

Mr. Helm has many other interests be- 
sides his legal profession. He is Vice-Presi- 
dent of the Essex Press Inc. Printers of 
Newark, and also Vice-President of the 
Chronicle Publishing Company, of Orange, 
New Jersey, which publishes the only daily 



302 



BIOGRAPHICAL CYCLOPEDIA 



newspaper in the Oranges. He is also 
Secretary and Treasurer of several other 
corporations. He is a member of Kane 
Lodge No. 55, Free and Accepted Masons, 
Newark ; Union Chapter No. 7, Royal Arch 
Masons ; Kane Council No. 2 R. & S. M. ; 
Damascus Commandery No. 5 of Knights 
Templars and is also a Thirty-second De- 



gree Ancient Accepted Scottish Rite Ma- 
sons. He is a charter member of Salaam 
Temple Nobles of the Mystic Shrine. He 
belongs to the Union Club, the Automobile 
Club of New Jersey, the Friars Club of 
New York, the Press Club, the Lawyers' 
Club, the Newark Board of Trade ; and the 
Indian League. 



RICHARD F. MATTIA 

NEWARK 



RICHARD F. MATTIA was born in 
Calabritto, Province of Avellino, Italy, 
in 1872. At the age of three, with his elder 
brother, Petrino B., he was brought to this 
country by his mother, going directly to 
Newark, where their father had resided 
for nearly two years previous. Both boys 
were immediately sent to the public schools 
where Richard remained until the age of 
eight. Then he engaged in work, preferring 
that to school, but at night attended the 
evening public school. Later he studied and 
practiced photography in the establishment 
of his brother Petrino and by the time he 
was fifteen years of age became recognized 
as an artist of talent. In 1887 he and his 
brother established the firm of the Mattia 
Brothers in Newark. One year later the 
two brothers became prominent when they 
won the highest award at the New Jersey 
Waverly Fair for the best display of photo- 
graphs and drawings. The firm was con- 
tinued for several years until the elder 
brother went on the stage as an actor and 
then became a scenic painter being later 
employed as stage manager and scenic art- 
ist in Miner's Empire Theatre, Newark. 

Richard F. Mattia then started out for 
himself, and for many years continued to 
devote his attention to the study of art, 
winning twenty-two awards for the best 
portrait drawings. His evening hours were 
spent in the Newark Business College, 
where he took a business course. After- 



wards he was employed with the Newark 
Advertiser as a photographer and reporter, 
resigning that position after several years, 
to accept a position as a photographer for 
the New Jersey Tenement House Commis- 
sion. He also gave two years to the study 
of law in the law offices of Hahn and 
Hahn, and after the law was passed to have 
civics taught in the evening schools to the 
foreign classes, he was one of the first 
teachers appointed, being assigned to the 
Franklin and Seventh Avenue Schools. 
That position he held until he became a 
candidate for office when, through pressure 
of time, he was compelled to refuse a re- 
appointment. Mr. Mattia now conducts a 
newspaper which he established in 1904. It 
is the only weekly in Newark that is pub- 
lished in both Italian and English, and is 
published under the name of La Rivista 
(The Review). It is published in the inter- 
ests of the young Italians and has a large 
circulation. 

In politics Mr. Mattia is a Republican 
and has been so since the first day he took 
part in a presidential campaign, that of 
Garfield and Arthur, although then he was 
merely a boy. He was of great assistance as 
an interpreter for the few Italian voters of 
the time. For nearly fifteen years, he was a 
member of the Naturalization and Speak- 
ers' Committee of the Essex County Re- 
publican Committee. In 1906 he became a 
candidate for freeholder of the Fifteenth 



BIOGRAPHICAL CYCLOPEDIA 



303 



Ward, but was defeated by seventy-seven 
votes, although running far ahead of his 
ticket. Again in 1908 in a four corner 
primary fight he won, and carried the elec- 
tion by 487 votes over his opponent. Al- 
though a new member of the board he se- 
cured appointments on several important 
committees, among which are: Bridge, 
Jail Discharge, Publication, and several 
minor committees. He has done good 
work both on committees, and in the board, 
is an active worker for competitive bidding, 
and is always found on the side of the 
workingmen. He is a member of the 
Benevolent Order of Elks, No. 21 ; Court 
Cavour, No. 133, Foresters of America ; 
Lhasa Council No. 2, Prince of the Caliphs ; 
the Guards of Columbus, Newark Camp 



No. I, the Serenade Pleasure Circle, the 
Millbrook Italian Republican Club, the 
Lincoln Republican Club, the Guards of 
Columbus Realty Company, the Italian Re- 
publican Club of Essex, the Italian Benevo- 
lent and Protective Institute, the Belleville 
Improvement Association, the Eighth 
Ward Improvement Association, St. Lucy's 
Young Mens Catholic Association, Cala- 
brittano's Mutual Benefit Society, the 
Northwestern Building and Loan Associa- 
tion, the Century Building and Loan Asso- 
ciation, the Newark Street Sweeper's Pro- 
tective Association, the Newark City La- 
borer's Employers Association, the Dia- 
mond Athletic Club, the Savoy Athletic 
Club, the Holy Name Society, and the 
Mattia-Curran Association. 



WILLIAM BURNET KINNEY 

NEWARK 



WILLIAM BURNET KINNEY 
(baptized William Augustus Burnet 
Kinney), second child of Abraham and 
Hannah (Burnet) Kinney, was born in 
Speedwell, Morris county, New Jersey, 
September 4, 1799. His early education 
was received under the instruction of his 
father, a man of culture, who made him his 
constant companion, and with whom, as a 
young lad, he served for some lime in the 
war of 1812. It was the father's intention 
to educated him for the army, and he was 
accordingly sent to the Military .\cadcmy 
at West Point. But after his fatiier's death 
he resigned from that institution according 
to the wishes of his mother, who felt that 
his talents better qualified him for success 
in one of the learned jirofessions or in lit- 
erary pursuits. He com|)leted his studies 
under classical and mathematical instruc- 
tors of high repute. He then entered upon 
the study of the law, first in the office of 
his brother, Thomas Talmadge Kinney, 
and afterward with his cousin, Joseph C. 



Hornblower (who later became Chief-Jus- 
tice of the state of New Jersey. 

Mr. Kinney displayed at an early age 
great abilities as a public speaker, with 
every promise of a distinguished career at 
the bar, but his tastes jiroved to be in the 
direction of general literature and scholar- 
ship. From 1820 to 1825 he was editor of 
the New Jersey Eagle, a weekly newspaper 
in Newark. Removing to New ^'ork, he 
took an active part in the organization of 
the Mercantile Library nf that city, serv- 
ing as its librarian, and during this period 
he was also associated in a critical capaci- 
ty (passing u|)on hooks and manuscripts 
for publication) with the house of Harper 
Brothers. 

.After a munber of years in New 'S'ork 
Mr. Kinney returned to Newark, assuming 
the management of the Daily /Idvcrlisfr, 
then the only daily newspajier in New Jer- 
sey, with which he united, as its weekly 
issue, the Seiiliticl of Freedom. To this 
journal he gave a high literary standard. 



304 



BIOGRAPHICAL CYCLOPEDIA 



In 1840 he was elected one of the trustees 
of the College of New Jersey at Princeton, 
which had previously conferred scholastic 
honors upon him. He was chosen a dele- 
gate-at-large in the same year to the Whig 
National Convention that nominated Gen- 
eral Harrison for the presidency, but de- 
clined the honor. In 1844 he represented 
his state as delegate-at-large at the Whig 
convention at Baltimore. In 1843 he was 
a candidate for Congress in the fifth dis- 
trict of New Jersey, but owing to a coali- 
tion of the opposing forces was defeated. 

In 185 1 he was appointed by President 
Fillmore Minister to the Court of Sardinia 
at Turin, and in this important diplomatic 
office he served with distinguished ability 
and usefulness. Enjoying an eminent rep- 
utation for literary and scholarly culture, 
and possessing a personality both engag- 
ing and forcible, he sustained intimate re- 
lations with the leading men of the times 
who were engaged in the reconstruction of 
the Sardinian government upon constitu- 
tional lines. Count Cavour and other 
master minds of that kingdom were in 
constant consultation with him in refer- 
ence to the practical working of our repub- 
lican system, and his influence was strong- 
ly apparent in the establishment of the lib- 
eral institutions of Italy. He also rendered 
signal service to the government of Great 
Britain in consultation with its ambassa- 
dor, Sir Ralph Abercrombie, and for some 
important diplomatic business intrusted to 
him received handsome official acknowl- 
edgment in a special dispatch from Lord 
Palmerton. 

At the time of the Kossuth excitement it 
was largely owing to Mr. Kinney's secret 
dispatches to Mr. Webster, our Secretary 
of State, that the United States govern- 
ment was forewarned of the perils of an 
official identification with the political con- 
troversies involved, and thus preserved 
from a grave foreign complication. While 
at the court of Turin his sympathies and 
influence were especially exercised in be- 
half of all liberal and progressive causes. 



A noteworthy instance of his activities in 
tliis direction was his procurement from 
King Victor Emmanuel of the right of re- 
ligious toleration for the persecuted Wald- 
ensians, leading to the erection of the first 
church edifice they had ever been per- 
mitted to have in the city of Turin. Upon 
the occasion of the dedication of that 
structure he was selected to lay the corner- 
stone. 

After the expiration of his term of office 
he resided for a number of years in Flor- 
ence, wliere he was a member of the select 
circle of literary characters and artists (in- 
cluding among others the Brownings and 
Hiram Powers) who made that capital 
their abode. Having for many years been 
greatly attracted by the romantic history 
of the Medici Family, he devoted himself 
to the accumulation of materials for an ex- 
haustive historical work on this subject, 
which, however, was left uncompleted at 
his death. Throughout his residence 
abroad he kept a diary, in which were reg- 
istered the more noteworthy incidents of 
his official transactions and private inter- 
course, forming a valuable contribution to 
the history of Italy during that most inter- 
esting and momentous period. The manu- 
script is still preserved by his family. 

Toward the close of the American Civil 
War Mr. Kinney, with his family returned 
to his home in New Jersey, where until his 
death he led a retired life, his time being 
chiefly occupied with literary work. At 
the celebration of the two hundredth anni- 
versary of the settlement of Newark, in 
May, 1866, he delivered the oration in the 
First Presl^yterian Church. This was not 
only a historical review, but an eulogium 
upon the virtues of the Puritans, who were 
the early settlers of the city. It is pre- 
served in the "Proceedings of the New 
Jersey Historical Society." The closing 
period of his life was one of much sufTer- 
ing, preventing him from the fulfillment of 
cherished literary projects. He died in 
New York, October 21, 1880, and was bur- 



BIOGRAPHICAL CYCLOPEDIA 



30s 



ied in the First Presbyterian Churchyard, 
Newark, New Jersey. 

?Ie married, first, September 16, 1820, 
Mary Chandler, daughter of Finlcy and 
Jemima (Winans) Chandler; she died Jan- 
uary 28, 1841, aged thirty-eight; the chil- 
dren of this union were. Thomas Talmadge 
and William Burnet, Jr., the latter born 
September 10, 1824, and died February, 



1825. He married, second, November 16, 
1841, Mrs. Elizabeth Clementine (Dodge) 
Stedman, daughter of David L. Dodge and 
widow of Edmund Burke Stedman; the 
children of this marriage were Elizabeth 
Clementine Kinney who married, William 
Ingraham Kip, son of Bishop William In- 
graham Kip, and Mary Burnet Kinney, 
who married Nelson Starin Easton. 



THOMAS TALMADGE KINNEY 

NEWARK 



THOMAS T.ALMADGE KINNEY, 
eldest child of the Honorable William 
Burnet and Mary (Qiandler) Kinney, was 
born in Newark, New Jersey, August 13, 
1821. His early studies were pursued in 
the Newark Academy, and his preparation 
for a collegiate course was made in the 
classical school of the Reverend William R. 
Weeks, D. D. At an early age he entered 
the College of New Jersey at Princeton, and 
was graduated from that institution in 
1841, among his classmates being the late 
Francis P. Blair, ex-\' ice-Chancellor .A.mzi 
Dodd, Judge John T. Nixon of the United 
States district court, Theodore L. Cuyler, 
and others who subsequently became dis- 
tinguished. During his college course Mr. 
Kinney manifested so nuich inclination for 
the natural sciences that the attention of 
Dr. Joseph Henry, the professor of those 
sciences, was attracted toward him. While 
in his senior year he was chosen by Profes- 
.sor Henry for an assistant, and the inti- 
macy thus formed ripened into a lifelong 
personal friendship. The degree of Master 
of Arts was in due course conferred upon 
him. In the meantime, he had entered upon 
the study of law in the office of the late 
Joseph P. Bradley, subsequently one of the 
justices of the I'nitcd States Supreme 
Court. In 1844 he was admitted to the bar, 
but he never availed himself of his privi- 
leges as an attorney. 



When \\ illiam B. Kinney retired from 
the editorial chair of the Newark Daily Ad- 
vertiser in June, 185 1, his son, Thomas T. 
Kinney, though still a young man, assumed 
the editorship and management of that 
journal. To this work he devoted himself 
with energy and zeal, maintaining in all re- 
spects the high character of the paper. He 
especially applied himself to the develop- 
ment of the newsgathering facilities, and 
was one of the factors in originating the 
system which culminated in that compre- 
hensive organization known as the Asso- 
ciated Press. In i860 he purchased the 
property on the southeast corner of Broad 
and Market streets, then and still the center 
of the business community of Newark. 

He was one of the projectors of the New- 
ark Board of Trade, and by that institution 
was sent as a delegate to the convention that 
organized the National Board of Trade in 
Philadeljjhia ; of the Society for the Pre- 
vention of Cruelty to Animals, of which he 
was a founder and for many years presi- 
dent, and of the .Asylum for Indigent Deaf 
and Dumb Children of the state, of which 
he was for a long time a trustee and active 
manager. He was a member of the state 
board of geology as well as of the state 
board of agriculture, and of the latter body 
was i)residing officer from 1878 to 1882. 
In iW« he was a delegate to the Chicago 
convention, ami labored earnestly for the 



3o6 



BIOGRAPHICAL CYCLOPEDIA 



nomination of Abraham Lincoln. No less 
active and prominent was he among the 
business institutions of Newark. The Na- 
tional State Bank of Newark, the Newark 
City Ice Company, and the Stephens and 
Condit Transportation Company numbered 
him among their directors, and he was asso- 
ciated with other public and corporate in- 
terests, being one of the founders of the 
Newark Electric Light and Power Com- 
pany and of the Fidelity Title and Deposit 
Company, of which he was president from 
its organization. He was also a member of 
the Board of East Jersey Proprietors and a 
hereditary member of the Society of the 
Cincinnati in the state of New Jersey. 

Mr. Kinney conducted the Daily Adver- 
tiser until about 1895, when he retired. He 
was always a staunch republican, and when 
James G. Blaine was secretary of state the 
post of minister to Italy was offered to him 
but was declined. Throughout his life, in- 



deed, he had a decided preference for the 
quiet and unpretending pursuits of a pri- 
vate citizen, never being a candidate for 
public office or even accepting appointive 
position of a political nature. In his per- 
sonal character he was a man of active and 
earnest devotion to the duties which fell to 
his lot, of strong domestic affections and 
warm friendly attachments, and of whole- 
some and stimulating influence. He died in 
Newark, December 2, 1900. He married, 
October i, 1863, Estelle Condit, daughter 
of Joel W. and Margaret (Harrison) Con- 
dit ; the children of this union were : Mary 
Clementine Kinney, who married William 
Campbell Clark of Newark ; Margaret Con- 
dit Kinney, who married Carroll Phillips 
Bassett ; Estelle Burnet Kinney, who mar- 
ried Frederick Frelinghuysen of Newark; 
William Burnet Kinney and Thomas Tal- 
madge Kinney, born October 24, 1872, died 
February 14, 1885. 



WILLIAM BURNET KINNEY 



w 



NEWARK 

ILLIAM BURNET KINNEY, son 



of Thomas Talmadge and Estelle 
(Condit) Kinney, was born in Newark, 
April 30, 1 87 1. Educated in Princeton 
University, in the class of 1895, he after- 
ward studied law in the office of McCarter, 
Williamson and McCarter, was admitted to 
the bar of New Jersey in June, 1896, and 
has since been practicing his profession in 
Newark, where he resides. He is a direc- 



tor of the National State Bank, the Fire- 
men's Insurance Company, and the New- 
ark District Telegraph Company, and a 
manager of the Howard Savings Institu- 
tion, all of Newark. He married, June 8, 
1901, Helen M. Murphy, daughter of the 
Honorable Franklin Murphy, later gov- 
ernor of the state of New Jersey. The 
children of this marriage are: Janet Kinney, 
Mai Kinney and Constance Kinney. 



HENRY MERZ 

NEWARK 



HENRY MERZ, who was long a prom- 
inent and influential citizen of New- 
ark, and one of the foremost business men 
of that city, was of German origin. His 



family was long and creditably identified 
with the dukedom of Hesse, where its mem- 
bers for many generations have been con- 
spicuous in professional and business pur- 





'^^?!^^ 



^^^ 



«^^^^ >^;^^.^^^ 



BIOGR.\PHICAL CYCLOPEDIA 



307 



suits. No representatives of the family 
came to America, until the generation to 
which Henry Merz belonged, several of his 
brothers and sisters ha\-ing found homes in 
this country. 

The father of this family, Johannes 
Merz, was a native of Hesse, bom near 
the city of Darmstadt. He was a man of 
advanced education and high culture, and 
for over half a century- was schoolmaster 
in the town of Bensheim, where he was 
held in the highest esteem by his fellow cit- 
izens. Upon the fiftieth anniversary of his 
schoolmastership, the government conferred 
upon him a medal, in recognition of his 
faithful services. A resident of Bensheim, 
during the greater part of his life, he tliere 
married Katherine Werle, and had nine 
children, as follows: i. .\ugust, died in 
infanc)'; 2. Henry, the subject of this 
sketch; 3. Karl, who came to America and 
became prominent as a musical composer, 
being successively professor of music in 
Oxford University and in \\'ooster Uni- 
versity, Ohio ; 4. Emile, who came to Amer- 
ica and died at San Francisco: 5. Kath- 
erine. who volunteered in the capacity- of 
nurse in a military hospital during the 
Franco- Prussian war, 1870, being awarded 
tvfo medals of honor, one by Emperor Wil- 
liam I, and the second by the Grand Duke 
Ludwig ni, in recognition of her faithful- 
ness and fidelity to duty and who came to 
America and now (1909") resides with her 
sister-in-law on Littleton avenue, Xewark, 
Xew Jersey; 6. Louis, who came to .Amer- 
ica, but returned to the Fatherland ; ~. 
Marie, who became a Sister of Mercy in 
the historic city of Manheim, Germany and 
died in 1876; 8. Hans, who at present re- 
sides in the City of Berlin : 9. George, who 
died in early life. Mr. and Mrs. Merz were 
consistent Christians, and members of the 
Roman Catholic Church, of which Mr. 
Merz was for many years the official or- 
ganist. 

Henrj- Merz, son of Johannes and Kath- 
erine (Werle) Merz, was born in the town 
of Bensheim, May 29, 1833 and died in 



Xewark, Xew Jersey, May 13, 1905. His 
early mental training was under the tuition 
of his father: later he entered the Gym- 
nasium, a classical school, and pursued his 
studies with a \'iew of entering the minis- 
try. This aim was abandoned, however, 
and he decided to emigrate to the new 
world, and accordingly set sail in 1833. 
landing at Xew York Cit}-. Shortly after- 
ward he removed to Philadelphia, Pennsyl- 
vania, and there secured a position in a 
music store, being well qualified for the 
work by his natural talent as well as by the 
musical education that had been part of 
his early training. After a few years, be- 
coming desirous of impro\nng his condi- 
tion and circumstances, he took up his resi- 
dence in Xew York City and engaged in 
business on his own account, opening and 
conducting a photographic studio. 

He continued this enterprise until about 
1869, when he became interested with his 
brother-in-law, Frederick Heller, in the 
manufacture of ultramarine blue, an article 
which was then for the first time success- 
fully manufactured in the L'nited States by 
the firm of Heller & Merz. In addition 
to this article they manufactured a large 
variet)- of aniline dye stuffs, and the plant 
in Xewark is the largest of its kind in this 
country, furnishing employment to many 
skilled operatives and laborers. .\s both 
members of the firm were thorough busi- 
ness men, straightforward in all their 
transactions, the enterprise proved a com- 
plete success and was highly remunerative. 

.•\lthough of a quiet and reserved dispo- 
sition, Mr. Merz took an active interest in 
the affairs of the community where he re- 
sided, and while a resident of Xew York 
Cit}- served as a member of the board of 
education and also as one of its trustees, 
and was connected in an official capacity 
with the German Hospital of Xew York 
City. In 1889 he removed to his residence 
in Littleton .•\venue, Xewark, where his 
death occurred. He was a member of the 
Free and .Accepted Masons, and an active 
member of the Turn \'erein, the Leider- 



3o8 



BIOGRAPHICAL CYCLOPEDIA 



kranz and other social German organiza- 
tions of New York City and Newark. He 
inherited to a remarkable degree the char- 
acteristics of his father. He loved music 
and books, and was thoroughly conversant 
with his favorite authors along both lines. 
He enjoyed the acquaintance of a wide 
circle of friends, both in New York and 
Newark, who esteemed and appreciated 
him for his many excellent traits of char- 
acter, and in his home life he also displayed 
the qualities which endear, proving always 
a faithful, loving husband and indulgent 
father. 

Henry Merz was married in Philadel- 
phia, Pennsylvania, December 20, 1856, to 
Augusta Heller, born in Bensheim, in the 
dukedom of Hesse, May 18, 1837, daugh- 
ter of Christian George and Elizabeth 
(Boll) Heller. The children of this union 
were: i. Carl, born September 20, 1857, 
married Marie Roth, no children ; 2. Frida, 



born January 28, 1859, married Dr. Henr\ 
Krollpfeiffer, children ; i. Frida, born May 
21, 1883; "• Harry, born November 5, 
1884; iii- Elsie, born February 16, 1889, 
and iv. Carl, born April 25, 1894 ; 3. Emilie, 
born April 8, 1861, married George Pro- 
chazka, children, i. Ottillie, born October 
II, 1887, ii. George, born December 14, 
1889, iii. Albert, born December 16, 1896; 
4. Harry, born December 27, 1863, mar- 
ried Elizabeth Bernhardt, one child, Elsie, 
born December 8, 1892 ; 5. Johanna, born 
February 19, 1865, died August 22, 1866; 
6. Ottillie, born December 14, 1867; 7. 
Eugene, born April 11, 1869; 8. August, 
born November 7, 1873, married, April 26, 
1899, Florence Victoria Doyle, children, i. 
and ii., Viola and Ottillie (twins), born 
June 13, 1900, iii. Henry, born August 22, 
1906, died March 19, 1909; 9. Elsie, born 
July 23, 1883. 



JAMES OWEN 

MONTCLAIR 



JAMES OWEN, County Engineer of 
Essex County, New Jersey, was born in 
London, England, September 23, 1845, ^ 
son of James and Sarah (Pearson) Owen. 
His father was a sea- faring man from boy- 
hood. Both parents died while the younger 
James was a lad, and he was thereafter 
brought up by an aunt. He was educated 
in private schools and at King's College, 
London, and, after completing his course 
at the latter institution, he was articled to 
Mr. G. K. Radford, a civil engineer of local 
distinction. In 1864, Mr. Radford removed 
to the LInited States and became chief en- 
gineer of the construction of a railroad in 
Indiana, which was subsequently taken over 
by an English syndicate, and in 1865, Mr. 
Owen came over to assist his principal in 
this work. Two years later Mr. Owen was 
appointed assistant engineer to the Brook- 



lyn, New York, Park Board, then engaged 
in the laying out of the Prospect and Wash- 
ington Parks, under the direction of the 
famous landscape architects, Frederick Law 
Olmsted and Calvert Vaux. 

In 1868 on the creation of the Essex 
County Public Roads Board, Mr. Llewellyn 
Haskell, its president, asked Mr. Olmsted 
to recommend a capable engineer to take 
charge of the work, and Mr. Olmsted se- 
lected Mr. Owen, who was appointed to the 
position and still (1909) retains it. During 
his occupancy of this office Mr. Owen was 
one of the most persistent and most thor- 
ough promoters of the "good roads" move- 
ment in the United States, and no higher 
praise can be given to his remarkable ac- 
complishments than the report of a national 
commission crediting New Jersey with the 
first rank among all the States (Massachu- 




c^. 



Or<-xeO 



BIOGRAPHICAL CYCLOPEDIA 



309 



setts second) in the excellence of its public 
roads, and Essex County with leading all 
the counties of the State. 

Besides his work on the lines of public 
road construction and betterment, Mr. 
Owen prepared a set of plans for the puri- 
fication of the Passaic River, and with sug- 
gestions, reports, and plans practically 
initiated the great work of reclaiming the 
extensive tract of salt meadow in the lower 
part of tlie city of Newark and of con- 
structing a ship canal through it which will 
ultimately make the city a seaport, with a 
great extent of wharfage, modern docks, 
and other commercial accessories, the 
whole estimated to cost at least $15,000,- 
000. 

Mr. Owen is a member of the American 
Society of Civil Engineers, the American 
Society of Mechanical Engineers, the New 
Jersey State Sanitary Association, and the 
Newark Board of Trade; president of the 
Miuiicipal Improvement Association, a Na- 
tional organization ; fellow of the Geo- 
graphical Society of New York ; and a mem- 
ber of the Engineer's Club, the Montclair 
Golf Club, the Union Club of Newark, and 



the Newark Automobile Club. In political 
preferment he is a Republican ; in religious 
associations he is a former vestryman of 
St. Luke's Protestant Episcopal Church 
and at present senior warden of St. John's 
Church at ^lontclair, where he resides. In 
addition to his manifold and engrossing of- 
ficial duties, Mr. Owen has found time to 
serve the town of Montclair as a member 
of its Board of Education and as town en- 
gineer for a period of seventeen years each, 
and he has also served as a member of the 
State Board of Education for nine years. 

In 1869 Mr. Owen was married to Mary 
Caroline Dunham, daughter of Jesse Dun- 
ham, of Newport, and of this union the fol- 
lowing children were born : Alice M., wife 
of Henry C. Eames ; Jessie C. ; James (de- 
ceased) ; Arthur E., principal assistant en- 
gineer of the Central Railroad of New Jer- 
sey; Edith A., wife of Walter Bruyere, 
son of Dr. Bruyere, formerly of Newark; 
Charles and Mildred (deceased) ; Kenneth 
D., an engineer as.sociated with his father ; 
Majorie (deceased); Dorothy: and Hilde- 
gard and Gwynneth (deceased). Mrs. 
Owen died in 1908. 



JAMES HENRY CLARK 

NEWARK AND MONTCLAIR 



THE CLARK F.\MILY of New Jersey, 
of which Dr. James Henry Clark of 
Newark, is one of the leading representa- 
tives of this generation, has been identified 
with the history of New Jersey in both its 
male and female branches for many gener- 
ations. Richard Clark, the American 
founder of the family, was one of the sign- 
ers of the Mayflower Compact. The fam- 
ily was prominent in the colonial history of 
the country, one of them being Abraham 
Clark, a signer of the Declaration of Inde- 
pendence and in the direct male line was 
descended David Clark of Rahway, New 
Jersey, who was a member of Captain 



I-ang's Company of the New Jersey Militia 
in the War of the Revolution. David Clark 
married Elizabeth Moore. A son of David 
and Elizabeth (Moore) Clark, was the Rev- 
erend Daniel Abraham Clark, who gradu- 
ated from Princeton College in 1808, and 
became a preacher of prominence. He mar- 
ried Eliza Barker, daughter of Dr. Jere- 
miah Barker of Gorham. Maine. His wife 
was .Abigail, daughter of Colonel David 
and Abigail (Sturgis) Gorham, of Barn- 
stable, Maine. 

The Barker family of England was of 
Kent, Middlesex and Surrey. It was armor 
bearing, its arms being barry of ten or and 



3IO 



BIOGRAPHICAL CYCLOPEDIA 



sable, over all a bend gules : crest, out of a 
ducal coronet or, an eagle displayed sable, 
beaked and legged gules. William Barker, the 
immediate English ancestor of the American 
family, was in England in 1300. The found- 
er of the family in America from whom 
Jeremiah Barker was descended was John 
Barker, who was in Marshfield, Massachu- 
setts, in 1638, and who married in 1632 
Ann, daughter of John and Ann Williams 
of Scituate. 

Colonel David Gorham, the father of 
Abigail (Gorham) Barker, and the grand- 
father of Eliza Barker, was a lineal de- 
scendant of Colonel Shubael Gorham, 
1686-1746, Colonel John Gorham, who was 
born in 1652 and married Mary Otis, 
and John Gorham, who was born in 1620 
and died in 1676. This John Gorham mar- 
ried in 1643 Desire Howland of Plymouth, 
Massachusetts, daughter of Captain John 
Howland, and granddaughter of John Lil- 
ley, both her father and grandfather being 
Pilgrims — signers of the Mayflower Com- 
pact. The Gorham family traces its an- 
cestry back in direct line to De Gorram of 
La Sauniere, near Gorham on the border of 
Brittany, where the head of the family built 
a castle in 1128. The arms of this family 
are gules, three macklebolts conjoined in 
the f esse point or ; crest, a sword in pale 
supporting on the point a garland of laurel 
proper. Abigail Sturgis, the wife of Col- 
onel David Gorham, and the maternal 
grandmother of Eliza Barker, was a lineal 
descendant from Edward Sturgis, who was 
a son of Philip Sturgis, of Harrington, 
Northamptonshire, England, in 1758. The 
Sturgis family was armor bearing, its arms 
being azure, a chevron between three 
crosses crosslet, fitchee or, a border engrail- 
ed of the last ; crest, a talbot, head or, eared 
sable. Motto : Esse quam videri. 

James Henry Clark, son of the Reverend 
Daniel Abraham and Eliza (Barker) Clark, 
father of James Henry Clark, the subject 
of this sketch, was born in New Jersey, 
June 23, 1814, and died in Montclair, New 
Jersey, March 6, 1869. He attended the 



high schools at Amherst, Massachusetts, 
and Bennington, \'ermont, and passed two 
years in study at European universities, 
graduating in 1841 from the College of 
Physicians and Surgeons, New York City, 
with the degree of Doctor of Medicine. In 
1859 Amherst College conferred upon him 
the degree of Master of Arts, in recognition 
of the services of his father, Rev. Daniel A. 
Clark, one of the founders of that college. 
He became an eminent physician of New- 
ark, giving particular attention to diseases 
of the eye and ear, and was an author of 
note. 

He married Cordelia Almira Ogden, who 
was born in Newark, New Jersey, Decem- 
ber 2, 1820, and died in Montclair, New 
Jersey, in April, 1897. Cordelia Almira 
Ogden was the only daughter of John and 
Susan (Ross) Ogden. Her father, John 
Ogden, was born in Elizabethtown, New 
Jersey. February 29, 1796, and died in 
Newark, New Jersey, June 23, 1851. He 
was in direct lineal descent from Andrew 
and Phoebe (Collard) Ogden; John and 
Abigail (Clark) Ogden; John and Mary 
(Mitchell) Ogden, and Captain Benjamin 
and Hannah (Woodruff) Ogden. Captain 
Benjamin Ogden was the son of John Og- 
den, the Pilgrim, who was born September 
19, 1619, in Bradley Plain, Hampshire, 
England, and died in Elizabethtown, New 
Jersey, in May, 1682. His wife, whom he 
married in 1639, was Jane Bond. This John 
Ogden was descended from Robert Ogden, 
1430. of Hampshire, England. The Ogden 
family was armor bearing ; its arms being 
sable, on a fesse argent between six acorns 
or. three oak leaves vert : crest, a stag's 
head cobossed proper, attired or between 
two oak branches in oak leaves proper, a 
cornua gold holding in beak an oak brand. 

James Henry Clark, the subject of this 
sketch, a son of Dr. James Henry Clark, 
and Cordelia Almira (Odgen) Clark, was 
born in Newark. August 8. 1856. He re- 
ceived his elementary education in the High 
School of Montclair, and graduated from 



BIOGRAPHICAL CYCLOPEDIA 



3" 



Williston Seminar}', Easthampton, Massa- 
chusetts, in the class of 1873. Later he en- 
tered Williams College, and in 1881, re- 
ceived the degree of Doctor of Medicine 
from the Medical Department of Columbia 
University of New York City. Entering 
upon his profession, lie has practiced as a 
physician and surgeon since 1881 in New- 
ark. He was connected with the Cliambers 
Street Hospital of New York City, 1880 
and 1 881 ; was a surgeon in St. liarnabas 
Hospital, Newark, for some years, and 
since 1883 has been an eye and ear surgeon 
at St. Michael's Hospital, Newark, since 
1886 has been police surgeon of Newark, 
and for twenty-two years has been an ex- 
aminer of the Massachusetts Mutual Life 
Insurance Company. He had two brothers, 
Joim Ogden Clark, a well known lawyer 
of Newark, 1849-1890, and Horace Francis 
Clark, of Newark, 1847- 1893. 

Dr. Clark is a member of several social 



clubs and other organizations. He belongs 
to the sons of the American Revolution, 
and is a member of the American Medical 
Association, of the Esse.K County Medical 
Society, and of the William Pierson Medi- 
cal Library Association. For thirty-five 
years he has been a member of the First 
Congregational Church of Montclair. He 
marrietl in New York City in 1891, Carrie 
Mescrole Schenck, and has one daughter, 
Mary Schenck Clark. Mrs. Clark is a 
daughter of Peter Mcserole and Mary 
(Force) Schenck. Her father was a direct 
lineal descendant from Sir Martin Schenck 
van Neydeck, of Holland. 1543-1589; of 
Eugene Meserole, a French Huguenot of 
Holland, 1662-17 12, who married in 1682, 
^lartje Covert, and also from Pieter Lef- 
ferts, 1680-1784. Mary Force, the mother 
of Mrs. Clark, was a direct lineal descend- 
ant from Roger Lambert, of Wiltshire, 
England. 



JOHN B. OELKERS 

NEWARK 



JOHN B. OELKERS, .successful as a 
manufacturer and prominent as a citi- 
zen of Newark, was born in .Mgermissen, 
near Hildesheim, Province of Hanover, 
Germany, December 17, 1846. lie comes 
of an old and resi)ccted German family and 
received his education in the jiarochial 
school of his native place, later attending 
a private school where students of the 
Gymnasium Josephinum in Hildesheim, 
who prepare themselves for a career as 
teachers, give instruction. .-\t an early age 
he learned the trade of damask weaving 
from his father and was subsequently ap- 
l)renticed to the mercantile house of Ferd- 
inand Meyer & Company, in Braunschweig, 
where he had to attend a commercial school 
twice a week, thereby acf|uiring knowledge 
that stood him in good stead in after years. 
Having thus received a thorough educa- 



tion in tlie fullest .sense of the term, Mr. 
Oelkers decided to essay his fortunes in 
the I'nitcd States, where he arrived in 1864, 
being tiien not yet eighteen years of age. 
Not afraid of hard work and ready to turn 
his hand to whatever he could find to do, 
he was employed for some time in an iron 
foundry. In 1868 he formed a partnership 
with his friend. Christian Deppe. at New- 
ark, and there establisiied a factory for the 
production of variety work and ivory 
articles. The undertaking was a success 
from the outset but when celluloid was dis- 
covered and the use of this material became 
general, the firm, with a clear perception of 
the possiblitics of the new product, discon- 
tinued the making of ivory articles and 
thereafter utilized celluloid. The outcome 
of this departure was all that could be 
wished anrl the firm became one of the lead- 



312 



BIOGRAPHICAL CYCLOPEDIA 



ing concerns identified with that branch of 
industry. 

Mr. Oelkers is a business man of marked 
ability, keen in judgment and unerring in 
his foresight. He is both progressive and 
energetic, quahties that have proved poten- 
tial factors in the building up of his busi- 
ness. Most of the success attained has 
been directly due to his personal efforts 
and to the intelligence with which he has 
conducted the affairs of the establishment. 
He used his knowledge to the best possible 
advantage and quickly acquired a reputa- 
tion for honesty and reliability of which he 
may well feel proud. 

Active as he has been in business mat- 
ters, he has still found time to devote to 
public affairs. A Democrat in his political 
views, he has served for many years as 
treasurer of the Democratic Committee of 
Essex County, resigning the office when 
William J. Bryan was nominated for Pres- 
ident in 1896 and uniting with the so-called 
"Gold Democrats." He was a delegate to 
the national convention that nominated 
Palmer and Buckner at Indianapolis and 
he participated actively in the campaign 
that followed. He has been a member of 
the Board of Education of the City of 
Newark for seven years, acquitting himself 
of his public duties in that capacity with 
high credit, rendering valuable service to 
the educational interests of the community ; 
and in 1904 he was appointed a member of 
the Board of Fire Commissioners, again 
demonstrating his eminent fitness for the 
place. 

Mr. Oelkers belongs to many benevolent 
and social organizations, and is particularly 
active in German affairs, serving as first 
vice-president of the United Singers of 
Newark for seventeen years and as a di- 
rector of the Northeastern Saengerbund for 
twelve years. He is one of the most prom- 
inent figures in German Catholic circles and 
has devoted much time and energy to their 
interests, filling the office of State Presi- 
dent of the German Catholic Associations 
of New Jersey. For the past seven years 



he has been president of the German Cath- 
olic Central Federation of the United 
States, an association extending over all 
the States of the Union. Under his policy 
the society in question has increased its 
membership from 52,000 to 130,000. 
Thanks to his initiative, for the first time 
in the history of the Central Federation, a 
pilgrimage to Rome was undertaken. The 
party consisted of two hundred and eight 
delegates and started under Mr. Oelkers' 
leadership. May 2, 1908. They were re- 
ceived in a special audience by the Pope, 
and on Mr. Oelker was conferred the Or- 
der Pro Ecclesia et Pontifice, which sig- 
nifies "in recognition of service for the 
Holy Father and Church." After the audi- 
ence at Rome, Mr. Oelkers travelled 
through Europe and visited the place of 
his nativity, which he had not seen for 
forty- four years. On September 5 of the 
same year he returned to his home in the 
United States and immediately took up his 
business affairs as before and remained the 
plain, unassuming citizen that Newark has 
always known him to be. Although high 
honors and favors were shown him by 
clergy and laiety, he still continued as un- 
pretentious as ever. 

At his home in Newark, Mr. Oelkers is 
respected and looked up to by the people 
of all classes and nationalities, regardless 
of their descent or religious belief. Al- 
though a consistent and positive Catholic, 
he is thoroughly liberal in his views and 
actions where others are concerned, con- 
ceding to everybody the right of full free- 
dom in the matter of convictions and opin- 
ions. No better proof could be presented 
of his popularity or of the esteem and con- 
fidence in which he is so generally held than 
the fact that he was elected a member of 
the Board of Education three times in suc- 
cession with steadily increasing majorities 
in a district where hardly ten per cent, of 
the voters are of his religious faith. 

Mr. Oelkers has been married twice, first 
to Mary Helene Schmitt, who was born in 
Newark, of German parentage. By her he 



BIOGRAPHICAL CYCLOPEDIA 



313 



had six children, of whom two sons and 
one daughter are hving. After the death 
of his first wife, Mr. Oelkers was married 
to Elizabeth Mary Jackes, who was also a 



native of the United States but of German 
parents. To this second marriage have been 
born seven chilren, five sons and two 
daughter, all of whom are now living. 



PHILIP DOREMUS 

MONTCLAIR 



PHILIP DOREMUS, who was long a 
prominent business man of Montclair, 
was born in West Bloomfield, now Mont- 
clair, New Jersey, October 29, 1825. He 
was the son of Peter and Rhoda (Crane) 
Doremus. His father was descended from 
Comelis d"Oremus, who, according to the 
records of the Reformed Churcli of Mid- 
(lleburgh, Holland, married Janeke Joris, 
May 12, 1675. Cornelius d'Oremus and 
his wife came to this country, and accord- 
ing to the records in the Bergen Church in 
New Jersey, Thomas Doremus, son of this 
couple was baptized April 11, 1687. Cor- 
nells Doremus, son of the preceding Thom- 
as Doremus and gradson of Cornells and 
Janeke (Joris) d'Oremus, was born April 
16, 1714. In the fourth generation, Peter 
Doremus, son of Cornells Doremus, was 
baptized, June 8, 1744. Peter Doremus, 
.^econd of the name, son of Peter Doremus 
preceding, was born near Beavertown, New 
Jersey, now Lincoln Park, February 17, 
1787. On October 3, 1810, he married 
Rhoda Crane, of West Bloomfield. He 
•'tarted a business of general merchandise 
in West Bloomfield in 181 1, and this busi- 
ness still continues in the hands of his de- 
scendants. He died June 15. 1857. He 
had six sons and two daughters : Joseph, 
Thomas L., Owen, Hannah M.. Edmund, 
r'hilip. Marcus, and Emma H. 

Rhoda Crane, whom IVter Doremus 
married in 1810, was descended from Jas- 
per Crane, who was one of the New Haven 
colony June 4, 1639. He was head of the 
colony of twenty-three families, which re- 
moved from Bramford Connecticut, and 



settled in Newark, New Jersey, and was 
conspicuous in the early history of that 
town. He died in 1681. In the second gener- 
ation, Azariah Crane, son of Jasper Crane, is 
recorded as living at his home place, at the 
Mountain, now Montclair, in 1715. He 
died November 5, 1730. He married Mary 
Treat, daughter of Robert Treat, who was 
also one of the earliest settlers of Newark. 
Nathaniel Crane, eldest son of Azariali and 
Mary (Treat) Crane, was born in 1680. He 
lived in Cranetown, now Montclair and had 
six children. He died in 1760. Noah 
Crane, son of Nathaniel Crane, preceding, 
was born April 18, 1719, and died June 8, 
1800. He was active in the organization of 
the First Presbyterian Church in Bloom- 
field. He married Mary Baldwin, and had 
nine children. 

Joseph Crane, son of Nathaniel and 
Mary (Baldwin) Crane, was born in 1751. 
He lived in Cranetown, having inherited a 
large portion of the original Crane farm. 
He was a man of strong physique, and 
marked integrity of character, a promoter 
of religion and education and highly es- 
teemed as a citizen. He was an elder in the 
First Presbyterian Church of Bloomfield, 
and of his eight children, two of his sons 
became Presbyterian Ministers. He died 
October 11, 1832. He married Hannah 
Lampson of Orange. Rhoda Crane, the 
youngest child of Joseph and Hannah 
(Lampson) Crane, was born December 17. 
1790, and died February 28, 1841. 

Philip Doremus was educated in the 
Mount Prospect Boarding School of West 
Bloomfield and also studied in the Bloom- 



314 



BIOGRAPHICAL CYCLOPEDIA 



field Academy. Entering busines life, he 
was for three years clerk in a grocery 
house in New York City, where he ac- 
quired a thorough knowledge of that line 
of business. In 1848, he succeeded his fath- 
er in the general merchandise business, in 
the same store building, which the father 
had occupied from the beginning of his 
business career in 181 1. In 1856, he built 
a larger store house in the same locality, an 
establishment, which at that time was sup- 
posed to be in advance of the growth of the 
town, but in the course of years the increase 
of population and the expansion of busi- 
ness necessitated large accommodations and 
in 1890, the present building occupied by 
the concern, was erected on the same site 
as that occupied by the original establish- 
ment, at the corner of Bloomfield and 
North FuUerton avenues. Mr. Doremus 
retired from business in 1904, and was suc- 
ceeded by his nephew, W. Louis Doremus. 
In early life, Mr. Doremus was attached 
to the Whig party, but upon the organiza- 
tion of the Republican party he became af- 
filiated with that, and has ever since main- 
tained that political connection. His first 
vote as a Republican was cast for John C. 
Fremont, for President. For a term of 
several years he was a member of the 
Township Committee of Montclair, and 
also a member of the school board. For 
six years, he was a member of the Essex 
County Board of Chosen Freeholders, and 
is now a member of the Board of Man- 



agers of the Rosedale Cemetery, which con- 
nection he has had for many years. He has 
also been a member of the Board of Direc- 
tors of the German Theological School of 
Newark since its organization. He was one 
of the organizers and a director of the Bank 
of Montclair, and has been president of the 
Montclair Savings Bank since its organiza- 
tion in 1893. He belongs to the Outlook 
Club of Montclair, being a member of the 
Executive Committee of that organization. 
He was a member of the First Presbyterian 
Church of Montclair until 1886, being a 
ruling elder for twenty-eight years, and su- 
perintendent of the Sunday School for fif- 
teen years. In 1886, he became one of the 
organizers of the Trinity Presbyterian 
Church, of which he has been a ruling elder 
from its organization. 

On November 20, 1851, in Saint Bar- 
tholomew's Church, New York City, Mr. 
Doremus married Hester Ann Yarrington, 
of New York, daughter of Benjamin C. 
and Mary (Lawrence) Yarrington. His 
children are Mary Y., who married S. C. 
G. Watkins and has three children, Philip 
D., Ann and Lawrence ; Caroline S., who 
married W. Louis Doremus, and has five 
children, Edmund, Elizabeth H., Philip, W. 
Louis, and Cornelia M. ; Annette C, who 
married Edwin B. Goodell, lawyer, and has 
four children, Philip, Francis, Florence and 
Edwin B. ; Adah D., who married Joseph 
B. Renwick and has four children, Annette, 
Joseph B., Hester and John P. 



CLARENCE KELSEY 

JERSEY CITY 



CLARENCE KELSEY, counselor-at- 
law, of Jersey City, New Jersey, was 
born October 27, 1869, in Shelby County, 
Missouri. His father, Edward Payson 
Kelsey (named after the celebrated divine, 
Edward Payson), was a captain in the 
Merrill Horse Guards of Michigan, during 



the Civil War, and his mother was Martha 
Toland Kelsey; both were of Battle Creek, 
Michigan. They settled in Shelby County, 
Missouri, shortly after the close of the 
Revolution. The family moved to Jersey 
City, New Jersey, in 1870. 

The Kelsey family can trace its ancestral 



BIOGRAPHICAL CYCLOPEDIA 



315 



line back to 1096. The ancient seat of the 
Kelsey family was Kelsale. in Suffolk 
County, England. The coat-of-anns of the 
family was : Gules, a cross maltese argent, 
surmounted by a band. 

Clarence Kelsey was educated in the 
public schools of Jersey City, and after 
graduating from the High School, took up 
surveying with Lucien D. Fowler, pub- 
lisher of state maps under the Martin Act. 
Mr. Kelsey, while in Chicago, Illinois, held 
a responsible position with Swift & Com- 



pany. At another time he was engaged in 
railroad construction in the state of New 
York. Taking up the study of law he was 
admitted to the bar as an attorney in May, 
1895, and became a counselor in June, 
1906. His law practice is large and con- 
stantly increasing because of his fidelity to 
his work. 

He married, October 30, 1901. S. C. 
Puidd, daughter of Gilbert and Lorctta 
Howell Budd. of Jersey City. 



JAMES BAKER 

JERSEY CITY 



JAMES BAKER was born in Jersey 
City, New Jersey, December 2, 1872. He 
was educated in the public schools and St. 
Peter's College, Jersey City. He is at pres- 
ent employed in the office of the Register 
of Hudson county. For eleven years he 
has taken an active interest in politics, and 
has a reputation as a camjjaign speaker. 
He was re-elected to the Assembly for a 



third term by a plurality of 3,667 over S. 
Smith, the second highest candidate on the 
Republican ticket. He received the highest 
vote on the Democratic Assembly ticket in 
the election of 1908. In that year he served 
on the Committees on Public Health, Elec- 
tions, Passed Bills and Treasurer's Ac- 
counts. 



GOTTFRIED KRUEGER 

NEWARK 



GOTTFRIED KRUEGER, who stands 
as an admirable tyi)c of the self-made 
man and of the German-.Xmerican citizen- 
ship to which the United States owes so 
much, and who, in his own career, has done 
much to advance the material interests of 
Newark, New Jersey, his adopted city, was 
born in Sulzfeld, Baden. Germany. Novem- 
ber 4, 1837. He is the son of William 
Krueger and Susan Laible, being descended 
through both father and mother from old 
and respected German lineage. His grand- 
father was Conrad Krueger, a resident of 
Sulzfeld, Baden, where he followed agri- 



cultural pursuits. He had five children, 
William, Elizabeth, Christian, Michael and 
Julia. The eldest son, William, was born 
in Sulzfeld, Baden, September 9, 1809. He 
married Susan Laible and was the father 
of nine children, of whom Gottfried, Wil- 
liam and Charles survived. He came to the 
United States in 1869 and located in New- 
ark. New Jersey, where he died in 1872. 

Gottfried Krueger received his educa- 
tion in the schools of his native countn.- and 
worked on his father's farm until he was 
seventeen years of age, when, in 1853. im- 
pressed with the advantages to be obtained 



3i6 



BIOGRAPHICAL CYCLOPEDIA 



in America, he decided to emigrate to the 
United States, thus preceding his fatlier to 
this country. Arriving here, lie located at 
Newark, where he has since made his home. 
He entered the service of a brewery, for 
the purpose of acquiring a knowledge of 
the business and his present extensive en- 
terprise is located on the identical spot 
which was the scene of his first labors in 
the brewing industry. Young Krueger ap- 
plied himself to the duties assigned him 
with a zeal and intelligence that enabled 
him to readily master the business in every 
detail, and he became an expert in all re- 
lating to brewing processes and methods. 
Seven years later he had made such pro- 
gress and advancement in his knowledge of 
the trade that he was called upon to act as 
foreman for a neighboring brewery, in 
which capacity he again demonstrated his 
worth and value as an employee. In 1865, 
in association with a partner, he established 
the business that still exists as the Gott- 
fried Krueger Brewing Company, the origi- 
nal firm being Hill & Krueger. In 1875 
this copartnership was dissolved, Mr. 
Krueger remaining in control of the enter- 
prise, which had been successful from the 
day of its inception, much of its success 
being due entirely to Mr. Krueger's per- 
sonal efforts. The energy which he threw 
into the undertaking, coupled with his abil- 
ity as a business man of sound judgment 
and unerring foresight, served to bring 
fruit in the shape of steadily increasing 
trade, and the industry grew and developed 
accordingly. Mr. Krueger paid attention 
to every department of the plant, insisting 
that the best of materials be used in the 
making of its product, which was as nearly 
perfect as could be. The output of the es- 
tablishment consequently achieved both re- 
pute and demand, its imiform excellence 
commending it to consumers. The brewery 
became one of the largest in the country, no 
undertaking of the kind possessing finer or 
more complete buildings or a better equipped 
plant, in which every essential requirement 
has been fully provided for. Improvements 



were begun the second year of its establish- 
ment and have been continued ever since. 
The enterprise was incorporated under the 
style of the Gottfried Krueger Brewing 
Company, with Mr. Krueger as its Presi- 
dent. 

The other interests of Mr. Krueger 
in Newark and vicinity are important and 
diversified. He has been president of the 
German Savings Bank of Newark, since 
1884, an institution that owes much to his 
executive ability and capable administration 
of its affairs. He has served as President 
of the Brewers' Association of New York 
and vincinity, which, in itself, testifies as 
to his standing and influence in the trade of 
which he is so prominent a representative. 
He has been President of the New Jersey 
Brewers' Association since 1865, Director 
of the Union National Bank, and Director 
of the Federal Trust Company of Newark. 
He is connected with a number of other 
important organizations and the Gottfried 
Krueger Association, of Newark, one of 
the largest and most potential Democratic 
organizations in the country, is named in 
his honor. 

Mr. Krueger is a staunch Democrat in 
his political principles and affiliations, and 
he has long taken an active part in politics. 
He was made a member of the Board of 
Freeholders of Essex County in 1876 and 
re-elected to that body in 1879, serving 
with credit and rendering valuable public 
service in his official capacity. He was 
elected to the Legislature in 1876 and 1880 
and was an elector-at-large on the Demo- 
cratic ticket in 1880. In the same year he 
was a delegate to the Democratic National 
Convention, and again in 1884. He has 
served as a member of the Democratic 
State Committee and his opinions have car- 
ried weight in party councils. 

He was also appointed by Governor Ab- 
bett to the Court of Errors and Appeals of 
this State for a term of six years and re- 
appointed by Governor Griggs, and later on 
when the time expired, after twelve years' 
service, Governor Murphy urged him to 



BIOGRAPHICAL CYCLOPEDIA 



317 



accept a second reappointment, but under 
the pressure of business he would not ac- 
cept. He founded "Greisenheim", a home 
for aged men and women, which has been 
in existence for tlie last eighteen years. It 
is conducted under his charge and in its 
management he has expended much money. 
The highest number of inmates in this 
Home has been seventy-six men and wo- 
men. It is now considerably less, because 
it is the intention to let it die out, no addi- 
tions to the number of inmates being ad- 
mitted. 

Mr. Krueger married, first, in 1861, 
Catherine Horter, daughter of Joseph H. 
Horter, who was a native of Ebingen, 
Baden, Germany. To this marriage were 
born seven children, of whom Gottfried F. 
and John C. alone survive. Mrs. Krueger 
died September 3, 1873 and Mr. Krueger 
married, second, April 21, 1874, Bertha F. 
Laible. daughter of Alderman John Laible, 
of Newark, by whom he has had eight chil- 



dren : Bertha, Lilly, Maida, Ella, William, 
Olga, Margaretha and Dorothy. 

.A man of thorough integrity, Mr. 
Krueger enjoys the esteem and confidence 
of the community in wliich he lives and 
plays so active a part. He has aided to a 
very material degree in advancing the 
best interests of the city and county, taking 
part in every movement tending to promote 
the general welfare or increase the re- 
sources of the locality. lie is a man of 
warm sympathies and liberal impulses, and 
he has contributed with an open hand, but 
without (lis])lay, to religious, charitable, and 
philanthropic work. He is a citizen of 
whom the city of Newark has every rea- 
son to feel justly proud. The community 
has benefitted through his presence not only 
by his contributions to worthy purposes 
but through his public spirit and his efforts 
in behalf of material development and the 
u]ibuilding of many enterprises that have 
proved of common value. 



ALFRED FRANCIS STEVENS 

NEWARK 



ALFRED FRANCIS STEVENS, who 
has acquired noteworthy distinction as 
an able and successful member of the New 
Jersey bar, was born in Iloboken, New Jer- 
sey, August 29, i860. He is a son of 
James Alexander Stevens and Julia I. 
Beasley, and on the paternal side is de- 
scended from the well-known Stevens fam- 
ily of Hoboken, his father being a grand- 
son of John Stevens, famous in the early 
days of the republic as an inventor and en- 
gineer, being among the first to put steam 
into direct operation as a motive power for 
water and land transportation. 

The founder of the American branch of 
the family was a John Stevens who came 
to this country from England in 1699. He 
had a son, John, who was born in New 
York City about 1708 and settled in New 



Jersey, where he was one of the joint com- 
missioners to whom was assigned the task 
of defining the boundar)' line between that 
State and New York in 1774. He was a 
Royalist Councilor but resigned that office 
in 1776 and served until 1782 as Vice- 
President of the Council of New Jersey, 
being elected to the Federal Congress in 
1783 and presiding over the State Conven- 
tion tliat ratified the Ignited States Consti- 
tution in 1787. This second John Stevens 
was the father of John Stevens, the inven- 
tor, and the great-great-grandfather of Al- 
fred Francis Stevens. The latter's grand- 
father, James Alexander Stevens, was 
born in New York City, January 29, 1790, 
and died in Hoboken, October 7, 1873. He 
was graduated froin Columbia College in 
t8o8 anfl was admitted to the bar of New 



3i8 



BIOGRAPHICAL CYCLOPEDIA 



York in 1811. In association with Thom- 
as Gibbons, he established the Union 
Steamboat Line between New York and 
Philadelphia, which led to the suit of Og- 
den vs. Gibbons, an action that is memor- 
able for the decision which placed all the 
navigable waters of the United States un- 
der the jurisdiction of the Federal govern- 
ment. 

The grandson, Alfred Francis Stevens, 
received his education in St. Paul's School, 
in Concord, New Hamp.shire, and after- 
ward entered Columbia University but 
spent only the freshman year in that insti- 
tution, as a student at the School of Arts. 
After leaving college, he was employed for 
a time by the construction company build- 
ing the West Shore Railroad with a party 
of civil engineers, and subsequently was 
engaged with a surveying corps in the tri- 
angulation of the eastern coast of Long 
Island. He then went to the Western part 
of Oregon in 1883, remaining there for two 
years, part of that time connected with the 
surveying corps of the Oregon-Pacific R. 
R., after which, in 1885, he returned to 
New Jersey and was employed for the next 
five years as clerk and bookkeeper for vari- 
ous concerns. 

In 1890, having decided to adopt the pro- 
fession of law, he became a student in the of- 
fice of his brother, Frederic W. Stevens, af- 
terward Vice-Chancellor, and was admitted 
to the bar of New Jersey as an attorney in 
February, 1895, becoming a counselor-at- 
law in June, 1903. He immediately estab- 



lished himself in the practice of his pro- 
fession and was successful from the out- 
set, his unquestioned abilities attracting at- 
tention and drawing to him a large and in- 
fluential support. He is now practicing for 
himself in Newark again, after having been 
associated with Mr. Philemon Woodruiif 
in a partnership called Woodruff & Stevens, 
for about nine years. His earlier experi- 
ence as a bookkeeper and in other capaci- 
ties has proved of the fullest value to him 
in his profession, while his excellent train- 
ing as a boy has stood him in good stead. 
He devotes himself to the interests of his 
clients with a zeal, fidelity and skill that 
have caused his legal services to be sought, 
and he is general counsel for a number of 
leading merchants, firms and corporations 
in Essex County and vicinity. He has been 
prominently and successfully identified with 
a great deal of important litigation, figur- 
ing in his cases with a capacity that has 
added materially to his professional re- 
pute and standing. 

He is one of the counsel for the Chil- 
dren's Aid Society, of Newark, and is a 
member of the Lawyers' Club of Essex 
County. He is a practitioner in Newark, 
where he lives. Personally he is a gentle- 
man of culture and refinement, endowed 
with exceptional intellectual strength and 
rich in mental attainments. The family 
traits in this respect have been strongly in- 
herited and well developed in him, and, in 
his own career, he has added to the honors 
of the name. He has never married. 



RODMAN McCAULEY PRICE 

HOHOKUS 



RODMAN McCAULEY PRICE, 
brother of Edward Livingston Price, 
a biography of whom appears elsewhere in 
this volume, was born in Sussex County, 
New Jersey, November 5, 1816. His ele- 
mentary education was in the public schools 



of New York City, and Lawrenceville, New 
Jerse}', and he was prepared for Princeton 
College. He did not, however, pursue a 
college course on account of ill health, but 
studied law for a short time. In 1840 he 
was appointed purser in the United States 



BIOGRAPHICAL CYCLOPEDIA 



319 



Navy. In the naval service of the United 
States he was on the steamer "Fulton", on 
the "Missouri", which was destroyed by 
fire at Gibraltar, and on the sloop of war 
"Cayane", which was part of the squadron 
which took possession of California at 
Monterey in July, 1846. Mr. Price, de- 
tached from the naval ship, was appointed 
prefect and alcalde of Monterey, and thus 
began a civil career which particularly dis- 
tinguished him. He was a member of the 
first constitutional convention of California, 
and being appointed naval agent in 1848, 
took an active part in organizing a govern- 
ment for the city of San Francisco. 

Returning from California to the East in 
1850. he was elected the .same year a mem- 
ber of Congress from New Jersey. Four 
years later, he w'as elected governor of his 
native state. He was the nineteenth gov- 
ernor of the state, and history has recorded 
that his administration was one of the most 
beneficent which the state has ever known. 
Some of the important achievements of his 
administration were the establishment of 
the public school system, the organization 
of the geological survey, the revision of the 
militia system, the establishment of the life 
saving service on the New Jersey coast, 
and the improvement of the public roads. 
One of the greatest accomplishments of his 
career as governor, was the settling of the 
controversy between the Camden and Am- 
boy Railroad Company, and the state, in 
regard to the rights and privileges, which 
had been granted to that company in 1830. 

In December, i860. Governor Price was 



elected a delegate for the state of New Jer- 
sey to the peace conference in Washington, 
District of Columbia. Representing New 
Jersey in conjunction with Governor Sey- 
mour of the State of New York, he was 
instrumental in having the clause relating 
to the bulkhead and pier lines of the Hud- 
son River, fronting the city of New York, 
satisfactorily determined. He was also par- 
ticularly interested in and made extensive 
researches into the matter of inland water 
communication from Sandy Hook to Cape 
May. He was also especially instrumental 
in securing the organizing of banks under 
the general law, which effectually disposed 
of the old state banks with special charters 
and unsecured circulation. 

After his term of office as governor had 
ended, he became interested in business af- 
fairs. He established the ferry from Wee- 
hawken. New Jersey, to Forty-second 
Street, New York, and was also engaged in 
quarrying enterprises, and in the reclaiming 
of lands on the Hackensack River. In all 
of these enterprises he was successful, es- 
pecially in the reclaiming of the Hacken- 
sack lands, which became profitable in agri- 
cultural productions. The ferry property 
and the reclaimed land ultimately became 
the property of Samuel J. Tilden, and final- 
ly of the West Shore Railroad. Governor 
Price was also particularly active in the 
movement to secure extensive railroad ter- 
minals on the Jersey shore of the Hudson, 
ami he was a commissioner for New Jersey 
of the New York and New Jersey Bridge 
Company. He died June 7. 1894. 



MARK A. SULLIVAN 

JERSEY CITY 



M.\RK A. SULLIV^AN was born in 
JiTsey City, November 23, 1878. and 
is a lawyer by profession, the son of Mark 
and Catharine fDriscoll) Sullivan. Edu- 
cated at St. Peter's Parochial School, Jer- 



sey City, he was grafluated from that insti- 
tution in the class of 1897, with the degree 
of Bachelor of Arts receiving the degree of 
Master of .Xrts in 1898 from his alma ma- 
ter. He was admitted to the bar of New 



320 



BIOGRAPHICAL CYCLOPEDIA 



Jersey at the February term, 1903. He was 
elected to the New Jersey House of Assem- 
bly for a fourth term in 1909. He served 
as leader of the Democratic minority 1908, 



1909, 1910, and as a member of the Com- 
mittees on Judiciary and Appropriations in 
the Legislature. 



OSCAR MICHAEL 

EAST ORANGE 



OSCAR MICHAEL, a member of the 
firm of L. S. Plaut & Co., one of the 
leading dry goods concerns of Newark and 
New Jersey, is a native of Hudson, New 
York, where he was born in 1861. When 
he was one year old, his parents removed to 
Newburgh, New York, where his father, 
Simon Michael, a native of Germany, who 
came to America in 1855, was engaged in 
mercantile pursuits until 1875. In the lat- 
ter year, the elder Michael removed with 
his family to Newark, where he engaged 
in the wholesale business of ribbons and 
silks. Retiring from business, he is now, in 
1909, living in Newark. 

Oscar Michael received his education in 
the public schools of Newburgh and New- 
ark, after which he entered the employ of 
Fox & Plaut, fancy goods merchants, 
which in the course of time was succeeded 
by L. S. Plaut & Co., and of which, upon 
the death of the senior member in 1886, 
Mr. Michael became a member. He has 
contributed no small part to the constant 



growth of this large establishment ; its pop- 
ularity with the purchasing community is 
shown by its being known far and near as 
the "Bee Hive", and it is one of the staunch 
concerns of its kind in Eastern New Jersey. 
Mr. Michael is a broad minded man and 
public spirited, and despite his close appli- 
cation to business for a period of thirty-five 
years, he has found time to apply himself 
to study and travel. He has repeatedly vis- 
ited different parts of Europe, and in 1900, 
accompanied with his family made the trip 
around the world. In his political views, 
he is independent of strict party affiliations, 
supporting such men and measures as ap- 
peal to his better judgment. He is a lib- 
eral supporter of all charitable and other 
worthy objects. He married Sarah Stern 
of Newburgh, by whom he has three chil- 
dren, Benjamin R., a student in Princeton 
University ; Herbert I., who is now prepar- 
ing for a scientific course in Yale Univer- 
sity; and Oscar, Jr. 



JOSEPH P. TUMULTY 

JERSEY CITY 



JOSEPH P. TUMULTY was born in 
Jersey City, May 5, 1879, and is a son 
of ex-Assemblyman Philip Tumulty, who 
served in the Legislature of 1887- 1888. He 
attended St. Bridget's Parochial School in 
Jersey City, and subsequently entered St. 
Peter's College, conducted by the Jesuits of 



Jersey City, from which institution he was 
graduated in the class of 1899, receiving the 
degree of Bachelor of Arts. He studied 
law in the offices of Bedle, McGee & Bedle, 
and John J. Mulvaney, County Attorney, 
of Jersey City, and was admitted to the bar 
of the State at the November term, 1902. 




J^J^fA c/c/ax.»7a.^^^ 



BIOGRAPHICAL CYCLOrEDIA 



321 



In 1904 he entered into partnersliip with 
George E. Ciitley, with whom he is now, in 
1909, practicing his profession under the 
name of Tumulty & Cutley, with offices in 
the Lincoln Trust Building, Jersey City. 
He is connected with many political and 
social organizations, chief among which arc 



the Knights of Columbus and the St. Peter's 
Alumni Association. He was re-elected to 
the Assembly for a third term by a plur- 
ality of 3,276 over S. Smith, the second 
highest candidate on the Republican ticket. 
In 1908 he served on the Committee on 
Education and Soldiers' Home. 



JAMES H. McGRAW 

MADISON 



JAMES H. McGRAW, publisher, was 
born in the village of Panama, Chau- 
tauqua County, New York, December 17, 
i860. His ancestors were from Ireland. 
His boyhood days were spent upon his 
father's farm, where he attended the old- 
fashioned district school ; later he attended 
the State Normal School in Fredonia, 
New York, where he was graduated as 
valedictorian of his class in 1884. Af- 
ter teaching school for some years in west- 
ern New York, he came to New York 
City. Engaging in the publishing business, 
he was for a time Philadelphia representa- 
tive of the American Railway Publishing 
Company, then the owner and publisher of 
three technical papers: "The Street Rail- 
way Journal," (now the "Electric Railway 
Journal,") "Power," and the "American 
Journal of Railway Appliances." 

In 1889 Mr. McGraw became the sole 
owner of the "Street Railway Journal," 
and this may be said to be the beginning of 
the extensive publishing business developed 
and controlled by him. LTnder his manage- 
ment the "Street Railway Journal" soon 
came to be recognized as the leading paper 
in its field, a position it has since maintain- 
ed. Owing to the enterprising policy adopted 
by him, the Journal rapidly gained in size, 
importance and influence, and it has kept 
pace with, and even led, the enormous de- 
velopment in electric railways which has 
taken place during the past twenty years. 
Under his direction the paper has grown 



from one comprising some 500 pages an- 
nually to a journal whose annual volume 
exceeds 6,000 pages, and which is regarded 
as the standard authority in electric railway 
matters the world over. 

In 1896 Mr. McGraw became the owner 
of the "American Electrician," a monthly 
periodical devoted to electrical and me- 
chanical engineering. Three years later he 
acquired the two leading weekly electrical 
journals "The Electrical World," and "The 
Electrical Engineer." All these he has 
consolidated into one publication, the "Elec- 
trical World." In 1899 the McGraw Pub- 
lishing Company, with Mr. McGraw as 
President and controlling stockholder, was 
organized to control these properties. The 
McGraw Publishing Company has head- 
quarters in New York, with branch offices 
in Qiicago, Philadelphia, Cleveland and 
London, and has in its employ as editors 
and writers some of the leading electrical 
and other engineering experts of the coun- 
try, as well as a large staff of business man- 
agers and assistants. 

Mr. McGraw has made several other 
ventures in the publishing business besides 
the proi)erties which he now controls. His 
efforts have always met with marked suc- 
cess. In December 1899 he purchased the 
popular magazine "Success." He immedi- 
ately reorganized its staff, changed it from 
a weekly to a monthly publication, and so 
succeeded in developing the property that 



322 



BIOGRAPHICAL CYCLOPEDIA 



in June, 1901, when it was sold by him to 
the present Success Company, the magazine 
had multiplied its circulation six times, and 
had also built up a handsome advertising 
patronage. 

Mr. McGraw has, since 1886, been a resi- 
dent of Madison, New Jersey, and has 
taken a prominent part in the activities of 
his town and of the county and State. He 
is President of the Board of Directors of 
the Madison Academy, and a member of 
the Board of Trustees of the First Presby- 
terian Church. For several years he was 
President of the Madison Young Men's 
Christian Association and active also in the 
State work of the Young Men's Christian 
Association of New Jersey. He was at 
one time Chairman of the State Executive 
Committee. 

In politics he is a Republican of the 
broad and generous type, and has been. 



since the day of his majority, an enthusias- 
tic worker for the cause. He .served as 
Chairman of the Madison Borough Repub- 
lican Committee for a long term of years, 
and from January, 1901 to 1908, as Chair- 
man of the Morris County Republican 
Committee. In 1904 he was sent as a dele- 
gate to the Republican National Conven- 
tion at Chicago which named Theodore 
Roosevelt as the Republican nominee for 
President. 

In 1904 Mr. McGraw served as a mem- 
ber and Secretary of the Electric Railway 
Test Commission in connection with the St. 
Louis Exposition in honor of the Louisiana 
Purchase. He is a member of the En- 
gineers' Club, the Aldine Association, the 
Railroad Club of New York, and Ameri- 
can Institute of Electrical Engineers. He 
married in Corfu, New York, 1887, Mil- 
dred F. Whittlesey. 



CHARLES P. DAY 

NEWARK 



CHARLES P. DAY, mechanical engi- 
neer of the city of Newark, is a lineal 
descendant of the Day and Pennington 
families. He is a son of Philip M. and 
Edna M. (Pennington) Day. His father, 
Philip M. Day, became a prominent whole- 
sale merchant of Elmwood, Illinois, where 
the family was settled when the subject of 
this sketch was a boy. Philip M. Day was 
a veteran of the Civil War, serving in the 
capacity of Quartermaster. He took an 
active part in politics, and was Mayor of 
Elmwood for a period of seven years. He 
was a broad minded man and did more for 
this city than any man before or after him. 
He died, aged fifty-five years, in 1899, at 
Urbana, Illinois, where he was universally 
esteemed for his many manly virtues. His 
wife survives in 1909 and resides with her 
son, the subject of this sketch, in East 
Orange. The paternal grandfather of 



Charles P. Day was Lovila A. Day, who 
served as a Captain of the Twelfth Regi- 
ment, Ohio State Militia, in 1833, and after- 
ward as a Captain of Cavalry in the Eighty- 
fourth Regiment in the State Militia of In- 
diana in 1837. The maternal grandfather 
of Charles P. Day was Charles W. Pen- 
nington, a lineal descendant of Daniel 
Boone. The Pennington family immigrated 
from Kentucky and settled in Illinois at an 
early day and becoming successful farmers 
at Pennington Point, a place named in their 
honor. Charles W. Pennington served 
throughout the Civil War and was in some 
of the most famous battles. He was a non- 
commissioned officer. 

Charles P. Day was born in what is now 
Larchland, Illinois, January 7, 1878. He 
obtained his education at Knox College of 
Galesburg, Illinois, and the University of 
Illinois at Urbana. After leaving college 



BIOGRAPHICAL CYCLOPEDIA 



323 



he immediately entered into the business of 
his profession, first in Providence, Rhode 
Island, and later in the city of New York 
in the employ of the American Tobacco 
Company, with whom he continued for a 
period of five years in the capacity of me- 
chanical engineer. On January i, 1909, he 
opened an office in the city of Newark, 
where he is successfully engaged in the 
business of his profession. He has design- 
ed many labor-saving machines in many in- 
dustries, one of which was the first and so 
far the only, successful long filler cigar 
bunching machine, several hundred of 



which are now in operation in difTerent 
parts of the United States. 

He is unmarried but maintains a resi- 
dence on Munn Avenue, East Orange. He is 
fond of out-door sports and among other 
organizations is a member of the New Jer- 
sey Automobile Club. He is a member of 
Phi Delta Theta college fraternity, the 
Modern Woodmen of America, and the 
University of Illinois Alumni Oub of New 
York City. His religious preference is 
Episcopal and he is a liberal supporter of 
church and school interests and all worthy 
subjects. 



WILLIAM SEBASTIAN STUHR 

HOBOKEN 



WILLIAM SEBASTIAN STUHR, 
of Hoboken, whose prominence at 
the bar and in politics has gained for him 
distinction throughout the State, was born 
in Williamsburg, New York, October i, 
1859, and at very early age removed with 
his parents to Hoboken, where he has since 
resided. Here his father was for many 
years a commanding and influential figure 
in public affairs. Having spent his active 
life in Hoboken, he has contributed some 
of the best elements of American citizen- 
ship to its growth and welfare, to its lead- 
ing institutions, and to the profession ol 
which he is an able and honored member. 
He obtained his preliminary education in 
that city, and subsequently studied for three 
years at a prominent institution of learning 
in Germany, thus gaining good classical 
training as well as a liberal knowledge of 
the world. 

Returning to the United States in 1874. 
he entered the law department of New 
York University, and was graduated there- 
from with honor in 1879, receiving the de- 
gree of LL.B. He continued his legal 
studies in the office of James W. Vroom, of 
Hoboken. and was admitted to the bar of 
New Jersey as an attorney in November, 



1880, and as a counselor in November, 
1883. 

Since 1880, Mr. Stuhr has been success- 
fully engaged in the practice of his profes- 
sion in Hoboken. He rose rapidly to a lead- 
ing place at the bar, not by any sudden 
freak of circumstances, but by his own ef- 
forts, by the exercise of recognized ability, 
and by those straightforward paths which 
lead to an honorable end. Careful and 
painstaking in the preparation of each case 
intrusted to his charge, industrious and in- 
defatigable in collecting both facts and evi- 
dence, and sincere in all his arguments be- 
fore a court and jury, he soon gained an 
enviable reputation for skill and ability, and 
for many years has been regarded as a 
leader of the Hudson County bar. He is 
one of the ablest and strongest advocates 
in the trial of causes in the State. Few 
lawyers have in this respect a higher or 
wider reputation. His masterful presenta- 
tion of cases before courts and juries has 
frequently been noted. He is especially 
strong in argument and keen and arlroit in 
the examination of witnesses. He is a pub- 
lic speaker of admitted eloquence. A man 
of unquestioned integrity, he possesses 
scholarly as well as legal attainments of a 



324 



BIOGRAPHICAL CYCLOPEDIA 



high order, and at the bar, in public, and in 
private Hfe has been eminently successful. 

From 1883 to 1885 inclusive Mr. Stuhr 
was corporation counsel of the City of Ho- 
boken. He served as assistant counsel to 
the board of chosen freeholders of Hudson 
County in 1888. In these capacities he ma- 
terially magnified an already high reputa- 
tion, and discharged his duties with char- 
acteristic dignity. He has always been 
deeply and actively interested in the ad- 
vancement of his adopted city. 

Mr. Stuhr has always been a prominent 
Democrat, and for several years was presi- 
dent of the Jeffersonian Democracy of 
Hudson County. In 1889 he was nominated 
by that party as candidate for State sena- 
tor ; and after one of the most exciting 
campaigns in the history of Hudson County 
was declared defeated. He was not one to 
abide by this decision, which appeared at 
once to have been brought about by unfair 
means. He therefore determined to make 
a contest, and did, with the result that he 
was seated in the Senate in May, 1890, just 
as the Legislature was about to adjourn. 
Probably the most significant and impor- 
tant result of the testimony taken at this 
time was the indictment by the grand jury 
of more than fifty election officers of Hud- 
son County, forty of whom were tried and 
convicted. These were among the most 
flagrant and noted election frauds ever dis- 
covered and prosecuted in New Jersey. 

Senator Stuhr was not permitted, how- 
ever, actively to fill the position which he 
had so honestly and dearly won. In Janu- 
ary, 1891, the Democrats, gainmg control 
of the Senate, unseated him, but not until 
he had made on the floor of the Senate one 
of the ablest and most brilliant defenses 
on record in New Jersey. For three hours 
on the fifteenth of that month, immediately 
after the election of officers, he defended 
his seat with a zeal and courage which chal- 
lenged the admiration of his political ad- 
versaries and gained for him a host of 
friends from all parties. Packed galleries 
at first attempted to interrupt him, but 
after five minutes all were quiet, and the 



closest attention was given to him to the 
end. His quiet dignity, his manly courage 
and commanding presence, his brilliant ar- 
gument in defense of his rights, not only 
awed his hearers, but in numberless in- 
stances convinced them of the justice of his 
cause. Even the adherents of McDonald, 
his opponent, who crowded the Senate and 
galleries, accorded him their highest respect 
as a result of his logical and eloquent 
speech. The vote was taken in silence, but 
no argument was or could be advanced to 
show the constitutionality of the action of 
the majority. 

The Trenton Times, characterizing this 
as "The First Revolutionary Act," said: 

"It was unconstitutional, revolutionary, 
and entirely without precedent, and can 
only serve to inflict injury upon the party 
which performed the act. Senator Stuhr, 
it will be remembered, was seated by the 
Senate after a long and tedious investiga- 
tion. In that investigation it was shown 
that the frauds of Hudson County were so 
great that they must have tainted the result 
and affected the seat of Senator McDonald. 
Whether wise or unwise, the Senate elec- 
tion committee decided then not to call a 
new election, but to declare that Mr. Stuhr 
had probably received a majority of the 
votes cast, and should be sworn into office, 
and the .Senate solemnly, on its own respon- 
sibility as a judicial body, so adjudicated." 

Again the same newspaper, in speaking 
of Mr. Stuhr's brilliant effort, remarked : 

"Senator Stuhr's address in defense of 
his seat, yesterday, was at times burning 
with an eloquence which is rarely heard in 
the New Jersey Legislature. He has shown 
qualities of courtesy and manliness which 
have made for him hosts of friends. He 
came to the legislative halls a stranger, but 
his modest demeanor and pleasant manner, 
proving him at once a gentleman and a fair- 
minded, conservative man, won praise and 
friendship. He goes back to his home 
known and appreciated outside of Hudson 
County." 

Mr. Stuhr is a large real estate owner in 
Hoboken and actively identified with the 
material welfare of the city. He is a mem- 



BIOGRAPHICAL CYCLOPEDIA 



325 



ber of Euclid Lodge, No. 136, Free and 
Accepted Masons, of Hoboken, of the 
Quartette Qub and of the Deutscher Pion- 
eer Verein of Jersey City, of the Jersey 
City Arion, and of the Alumni Association 



of the Law Department of New York L^ni- 
versity. In February, 1886, he married 
Marietta Lindsay Miller, daughter of 
Thomas Miller, a prominent resident of 
Flushing, Long Island. 



ELIAS SAYRE WARD 

NEWARK 



ELIAS SAYRE WARD, one of New- 
ark's most representative men, was for 
many years identified with the various in- 
terests that promoted the greatness and 
prosperity of that city. He was prominent 
as a manufacturer, a railroad organizer and 
a politician. He was born at Afton, Morris 
County, New Jersey, November 28, 1842, 
the oldest son of Moses Dodd and Louisa 
(Sayre) Ward. He came of Revolutionary 
stock, his ancestors having been among the 
first settlers of Newark, who came from 
Connecticut in 1666. Spending his boyhood 
and youth on the paternal farm he com- 
pleted his education in the Bloomfield 
.\cademy and entered business life as a 
salesman for a New York house. In 
this capacity he became widely known. 
Through his efforts the Commercial 
Travellers Association was organized and 
his refusal to submit to the special tax 
levied in several States upon salesmen from 
other States led to a dispute carried on in 
his name, which was decided in his favor 
by the United States Supreme Court. Since 
then such taxes have not been levied. 

Later in life Mr. Ward was. for a few 
years, a member of the firm of Butler and 
Ward. He was also for one year associated 
with T. P. Howell & Co. He severed this 
relation, to begin, in 1879 the manufacture 
of patent and enamel leather. This busi- 
ness he carried on till the time of his death 
since which this extensive plant, so success- 
fully established by him, has prospered un- 
der the efficient management of his son 
Robertson S. Ward. Mr. Ward was a man 



of great energy, keen discrimination and 
untiring perseverance, and these qualities 
made him a factor in the business world. 
He was a director of the Prudential Life 
Insurance Company of America, and for a 
number of years served as chairman of the 
Executive Committee. In 1889-90 he or- 
ganized a Rapid Transit Railroad Com- 
pany of Newark, and was elected its Presi- 
dent. 

The city of Newark is indebted to him 
for the introduction of the electric-trolley 
system of rapid transit. In 1892 he organ- 
ized a Newark and South Orange Railway 
Company, of which he was chosen Presi- 
dent, and in that capacity superintended 
the conduct of both enterprises until his 
death. In 1894 he was one of the organ- 
izers of the Bridgeport Traction Company, 
of Bridgeport, Connecticut, and was made 
its Vice-President. 

Politically Mr. Ward was prominently 
identified with the Rciniblican jiarty and in 
1895, received the unanimous support of 
the county for the nomination for Governor 
on the Republican ticket. His opinions car- 
ried weight and influence in the councils of 
this party and he viewed all political ques- 
tions from the broad and practical stand- 
point of the business man who is conver- 
sant with the public needs. He was very 
charitable and gave freely to benevolent 
enterprises. 

On March 4, 1873. he married Anna D. 
P.onncU. only daughter of Joel M. Ronnell ; 
of this union five children were born, Jessie 



326 



BIOGRAPHICAL CYCLOPEDIA 



B., Robertson S., Allan B., Charles B., and 
Laurence. He died December 23, 1896, at 
the age of fifty-four and it may truly be 



said that few men in private life round out 
a term of fifty years more useful to the 
world, and serviceable to their generation. 



JAMBS HENRY LOWREY 

NEWARK 



JAMES HENRY LOWREY, one of the 
youngest physicians of Newark, was 
born in the Fifth Ward of the city, July 12, 
1880. He is the son of Henry and Mary 
Jane Lowrey. His elementary education 
was in the Lafayette Street Grammar 
School, from which he was graduated in 
1894, and the High School of Newark, from 
which he was graduated in 1898. He then 
pursued his studies further in the College 
of Physicians and Surgeons, the Medical 
Department of Columbia University, New 
York, and was graduated therefrom with 
the degree of Doctor of Medicine in 1902. 
After receiving his degree, he served as an 
interne in the Newark City Hospital for a 
year and a half, and then entered upon pri- 
vate practice in June of 1904. He is still 



connected with the Newark City Hospital 
as assistant gynecologist and is also assist- 
ant medical attendant in Saint Michael's 
Hospital in Newark. He was a City Phy- 
sician from 1904 to 1909. Politically he is 
a Republican, and has been a delegate to 
various City, County and State Conven- 
tions, and he was elected to the New Jersey 
State Assembly from Essex County in 
1908. 

Dr. Lowrey is a member of the Ameri- 
can Medical Association, the Essex County 
Medical Society, the Essex County Ana- 
tomical and Pathological Society, the New- 
ark Medical League, and the Doctor's Club. 
In December, 1908, in Newark, he married 
Elsie Albertine Stengel, daughter of Carl 
August and Elizabeth Stengel. 



FRANK G. Dubois 

NEWARK 



FRANK G. Dubois, of the City of 
Newark, President of the New Jersey 
State Board of Certified Public Account- 
ants, and also an ex-President of the New 
Jersey State Society of Certified Public 
Accountants, was for some time one of the 
Executive Committee, and a trustee of the 
American Society of Public Accountants, 
which includes every State in the LTnion. 
He is also an inventor. 

Mr. DuBois, of French Huguenot de- 
scent, is a native of the city of New York, 
where he was born July 27, 1855. He ob- 
tained his education in the public schools of 



that city, and was graduated from the Thir- 
teenth Street "Old 35" Grammar School. 
After a year spent at business, he took a 
course at Packard's Business College from 
which he was graduated with first honors 
in 1873. After leaving school, he worked 
at and mastered two trades, which have 
proved valuable assets to him in his present 
professional work. He has been connected 
with various lines of manufacture, and was 
the inventor of the vertical system of filing, 
which he patented in 1884. This system 
was years ahead of its time, as then it was 
almost impossible to sell a vertical filing 



BIOGRAPHICAL CYCLOPEDIA 



327 



cabinet, but since 19CX) its advantages have 
been generally realized, and the system has 
been universally adopted. 

After opening an office in Xew York City 
as a certified public accountant, he speedily 
achieved an enviable reputation, and to-day 
1909, stands among the foremost in the 
profession. He has handled many puzzles 
in tangled book-keeping and is the author 
of the Public Accountant Law of New Jer- 
sey. While his profession has made con- 
stant demands upon his services he has 
devoted considerable time to other matters. 
For fifteen years he was a member of the 
New York Seventh Regiment, being when 
honorably discharged in 1900, Sergeant of 
the hospital corps. 

In 1901, Mr. DuBois opened an office in 
the city of Newark and has since maintain- 



ed offices both in that city and in New York. 
His influence has always been exerted for 
the maintenance of a high standard for his 
profession and the development of the pro- 
fessional regard for accounting. In 1906 
he served on the April Grand Jury and as 
one of the Business Committee improved 
the opportunity to "look into" the account- 
ing methods of Essex County. He is a 
member of the Newark Board of Trade 
and has acted on some of the most impor- 
tant committees. He is a member of sev- 
eral clubs, and is past regent in the Royal 
Arcanum, a member of St. John's Lodge, 
Free and Accepted Masons, and a thirty- 
second degree Mason. He married Ella 
Brewer and his children are Marjorie Du- 
Bois and Addison DuBois. 



JOHN WAHL QUEEN 



JERSEY CITY 



JOHN WAHL QUEEN, recognized 
throughout New Jersey as one of the 
leaders of the Democratic party of the 
State and a representative lawyer whose 
abilities have been demonstrated at bench 
and bar, was born February 20, 1862, in 
Mount Pleasant, Hunterdon county. New 
Jersey. He is a son of John W. Queen and 
Li vera Apgar, and is descended through 
both father and mother from old and re- 
spected ancestral stock. I Ic received his 
education in the State Model School in 
Trenton, New Jersey, from which he was 
graduated in 1883, subsequently entering 
Princeton University, from which latter in- 
stitution he was graduated in the class of 
1887, tlie degree of Doctor of Philosophy 
being conferred upon him by that univers- 
ity in 1889. 

Deciding to make the law his profession, 
he became a student in the office of Collins 
& Corbin, in Jersey City, at the same time 
pursuing his studies in the New York Law 



School. He was admitted to the bar of 
New Jersey as an attorney in November, 
1893, and was made a counselor-at-Iaw in 
February, 1898. Establishing himself in 
the practice of his profession in Jersey 
City, he was not long in winning distinction 
as an able advocate, sound and thorough 
in his knowledge of law. His services were 
souglit by many important interests and he 
figured consjiicuously and with success in 
much litigation that envolved issues of con- 
sequence and principles that were vital. 
His standing at the bar was soon acknowl- 
edged as that of a leader and he built up a 
practice that was both extended and in- 
fluential in character. 

From the outset of his career Mr. Queen 
took an active part in politics, and he par- 
tici]iatcd in the campaign work of the 
Democratic party with an energy and ef- 
fectiveness that caused his services to be 
ai)prcciated at their true value. Nominated 
by his party and elected at tlie polls, he 



328 



BIOGRAPHICAL CYCLOPEDIA 



was a member of the New Jersey Legisla- 
ture in the House of Assembly during the 
session of 1895 and 1896, in which capacity 
he served with credit and ability. He was 
hailed as the leader of the Democratic 
minority in that body and rendered notable 
public service that added materially to his 
prestige and popularity. He introduced 
the equal taxation bill, which resulted in the 
appointment by Governor Griggs of a com- 
mission to investigate the taxation of rail- 
road property. This fight made Mr. Queen 
one of the recognized leaders of his party 
m the State and won for him a wide and 
favorable reputation as a champion of the 
public interests. A bill which was recom- 
mended by this commission was introduced 
at the next session of the Legislature, be- 
came a law, and had the effect of returning 



to Hudson county upwards of a quarter of 
a million of dollars annually which had 
previously been paid by the railroads to 
the State. 

In January, 1897, Mr. Queen formed a 
copartnership for the practice of law with 
George G. Tennant, of Jersey City, under 
the style of Queen & Tennant. In May, 
1898, he was appointed by Mayor Hoos to 
the office of City Attorney of Jersey City 
for a term of two years, in which position 
he served with fidelity and intelligence. He 
is a member of the Princeton Club of New 
York, the Palma Club of Jersey City, the 
Jersey City Board of Trade, and the Uni- 
versity Club of Hudson County. He was 
married December 14, 1898, to Rebecca 
Bird Whitfield, daughter of Edwin H. and 
Susie (Bird) Whitfield, of New York. 



HENRY YOUNG 

NEWARK 



HENRY YOUNG, son of Charles E. and 
Charlotte Denman (Wilbur) Young, 
was born in Newark, October 24, 1844. 
His ancestors for over one hunderd and 
fifty years were residents of New Jersey. 
Paternally he traced his lineage to Scot- 
land, and on the maternal side his fore- 
bears were English. The families were 
always patriotic and influential in the com- 
monwealth, and representatives of both 
branches participated in the War of the 
Revolution. 

After obtaining his preliminary edu- 
cation in the private school of William 
Bradley, he entered Princeton College in 
the sophomore class of 1859 and was 
graduated in 1862, ranking third in a class 
distinguished for high average scholarship. 
Having determined to make the study and 
practice of law his life work, he entered 
the office of Frederick T. Frelinghuysen as 
a student, and one year later continued his 
studies in the Harvard Law School. Ad- 



mitted to the bar in 1865, he entered upon 
practice, and three years later became a 
counsellor. In 1865 he received the de- 
gree of master of arts from his alma mater. 
From the time of his admission to the 
bar, until shortly before his death, he was 
engaged in active practice, and employed 
on one side or the other in many of the 
important cases tried in northern New 
Jersey. As a constitutional lawyer, he 
ranked among the leaders ; and he was 
considered an authority on questions of 
corporation law. 

In 1867 he was Assistant United States 
District Attorney, a position which he held 
until 1873. In 1876 he became Corpora- 
tion Counsel of the city of Newark, a po- 
sition which he held under Mayors Yates, 
Fiedler and Lang, from 1876 until 1884, 
during which period he displayed a degree 
of ability which was commended by the 
entire bar. May 17, 1904, he was appoint- 
ed Prosecutor of Essex County, and re- 



BIOGRAPHICAL CYCLOPEDIA 



329 



signed the office of city counsel to whicli 
he had been appointed in 1903. He died 
March 30, 1908, after an iUness of three 
weeks. 

Mr. Young was a member of the Law- 
yers' Club, and chairman of the Commit- 
tee on Admissions of the State Bar As- 
sociation. He was also a member of the 
board of Governors of the Essex Qub and 



a communicant of the North Reformed 
Church. He married, in June, 1870. Mar- 
garet Hitchcock, of Qeveland, Ohio. He 
was survived by Mrs. Young and three 
sons: Henry, Stuart and Roger. His 
death was mounrned by the entire com- 
munity, and his pail bearers were chosen 
from the most prominent men of the 
State. 



HENRY YOUNG, JR. 

NEWARK 



HENRY YOUNG, Jr., attorney and 
counselor-at-law, is the eldest son of 
Henry and Margaret (Hitchcock) Young 
of Newark. He was born in Newark, No- 
vember 22, 1871. His early education was 
obtained in the Newark Academy, from 
which he was graduated in 1889. Subse- 
quently he pursued his studies in Prince- 
ton University and was graduated from 
that institution in 1893. He has been a suc- 
cessful practicing lawyer, and interested in 



public affairs. In 1908, he was elected to 
the Assembly, and his jiersonal popularity 
was shown by his having a plurality of 
13,188 over Herrmann, who was the candi- 
date holding the highest vote on the Demo- 
cratic ticket. In the Assembly he was 
chairman of the committee on Banks and 
Insurance and also a member of the com- 
mittees on Election, and Home for Feeble 
Minded Boys and Girls. 



SAMUEL F. WILSON 

NEWARK 



SAMUEL F. WILSON was born in 
Newark, October 21, 1870, and has al- 
ways made that city his home. He attend- 
ed the public schools, and after completing 
his studies therein took a course in the 
New Jersey Business College. Leaving 
college he started in to learn the plumbing 
trade, and after acquiring a tliomugh know- 
ledge of its various branches embarked in 
business on his own account as a master 
plumber. His standing with his fellow- 
craftsmen is best evidenced by the fact that 
he was chosen vice-president of the Mas- 
ter Plumbers Association of Newark, and 
holds that office at the present time. 



In 1898 he was elected to the Board of 
Education from the Third Ward for the 
usual term of two years. This was his first 
essay at i)ublic office, and no better proof of 
his popularity can be offered than the elec- 
tion returns of that year. He was the only 
Republican electeil from the ward. .After 
serving the full term for which he was 
elected as School Commissioner, he re- 
moved to the Fourteenth Ward, where his 
place of business is located. 

In looking for available men for the A.s- 
sembly nominations in KfoS. Mr. Wilson 
was maile the choice of the district com- 
posed of the Thirteenth and Fourteenth 



33° 



BIOGRAPHICAL CYCLOPEDIA 



Wards. That he had not lost in prestige as 
a School Commissioner or in a business or 
social way was demonstrated by his nomina- 
tion for the Assembly, he heading the ticket 
with a vote of 33, 285, as against 33, 279 
for William Pennington, next highest on 



the list. His plurality over Herbert, the 
highest candidate on the Democratic ticket, 
was 13, 390. 

Mr. Wilson is a member of Cosmos 
Lodge 106, Free and Accepted Mason, and 
of the National Turnverein. 



GEORGE H. LAMBERT 

NEWARK 



GEORGE H. LAMBERT, prominent 
among the active, successful and rep- 
resentative members of the Essex County 
bar, was born April 13, 1853, in Wantage 
township, Sussex county. New Jersey. He 
is descended from old and respected lineage 
through both his parents. He received his 
education at Mount Retirement Seminary, 
near Deckertown, and at the classical school 
of William Rankin in Mendham, New Jer- 
sey. 

Having determined upon the law as the 
profession best suited to his tastes and abili- 
ties, he became a student and was admitted 
to the bar of New Jersey as an attorney in 
February, 1880, and as a counselor-at-law 
in June, 1896. Immediately after his admis- 
sion in 1880, he opened an office in Newark, 
where he has since carried on a general 
practice, proving successful to a marked 



degree. He has been prominently identified 
with a number of important cases, in all 
which he demonstrated his ability and 
served his clients' best interests with a skill 
that brought him prestige as a thoroughly 
able and qualified lawyer. He is counsel 
for some of Essex county's leading business 
men and corporations, and his standing at 
the bar is that of an honorable gentleman 
whose professional integrity is as high as 
his personal repute. 

Mr. Lambert is a member of a number of 
organizations, in all of which he is popular 
and influential, and he is esteemed in New- 
ark as one of the city's most public spirited 
citizens. He possesses the regard and con- 
fidence of all with whom he holds relations, 
and he thoroughly merits the enviable repu- 
tation that he has acquired as the natural 
fruit of an honorable and successful career. 



LOUIS EDWARD HERRMANN 

JERSEY CITY 



LOUIS EDWARD HERRMANN, law- 
yer, was born in Jersey City, New Jer- 
sey, July 6, 1876. His father was Louis E. 
Herrmann and his mother Mary A. Craven. 
His father was a native of Hoboken, New 
Jersey, and his mother was born in Jersey 
City. His father was widely known 
throughout the State of New Jersey as an 
expert title searcher. The son was edu- 



cated in the public schools of Jersey City, 
being graduated from the High School in 
1895. Afterwards he studied in New York 
University, being graduated in 1898, with 
the degree of Bachelor of Philosophy, and 
he also studied law in the New York Law 
School. While a law student he taught in 
the night schools of Jersey City. Later he 
was engaged in newspaper work on the re- 



BIOGRAPHICAL CYCLOPEDIA 



331 



portorial staff of the Jersey City News and 
the Jersey City Journal. He studied law in 
the offices of John L. Keller, John W. 
Week and Aug^istus Zahriskie. lie was ad- 
mitted to the bar in June, 1901, and formed 
partnership with Andrew J. Steelman, Jr. 
In his political affiliations he is a Demo- 
crat, but the only office which he has held 



was that of member of the Board of Edu- 
cation of Jersey City for two terms, under 
Mayor Pagan. He is a member of the Uni- 
versity Club of Hudson County, the Jersey 
City Club, and the Downtown Club. On 
April 25, 1906, in Jersey City, he married 
Gertrude Helena Hinsc, daughter of Her- 
man G. Hinse, and Wilhelmina G. Hinse. 



MONTE T. MOREHOUSE 

NEWARK 



MONTE T. MOREHOUSE, recog- 
nized in Eastern New Jersey as pos- 
sessing expert knowledge of the subject of 
land titles, was born in New Brunswick, 
Middlesex county, that State, December 
14, i88o. He is the son of James N. More- 
house and Anna Pell, both of whom were 
natives of New- Brunswick. Mr. More- 
house the elder was long identified with the 
chemical engraving business. The family 
is an old and respected one in New Jersey. 
Monte T. Morehouse received his edu- 
cation in the public schools of Newark, fol- 
lowed by a course in the Newark High 
School. Having decided upon the profes- 
sion of law as the pursuit most congenial 
to his tastes and inclinations, he entered 
the Dickinson Law School, in Carlisle, 
Cumberland county, Pennsylvania, from 



which institution he was graduated in the 
class of 1904, with the degree of Bachelor 
of Laws. That same year he was admitted 
to the Pennsylvania bar but later became 
identified with the New Jersey Title and 
Abstract Company, of Newark, becoming 
its secretary and treasurer, a responsibility 
for which he was peculiarly fitted, both by 
reason of his training and his natural 
adaptability for the dual office. His knowl- 
edge of law, and especially that branch per- 
taining to real estate, has stood him in 
good stead in his connection with that 
company. In 1909 he resigned his position 
with the New Jersey Title and Abstract 
Company and became Secretary and 
Treasurer of the Newark Brass Plate En- 
graving Company. 



OSCAR L. AUF DER HEIDE 

WEST NEW YORK 



OSCAR L. AUF DER HEIDE was 
born in New York Cit)', December 8, 
1874, and is in the real estate and insurance 
business. He came to West New York 
when fifteen years old. He served as 
Councilman for two terms and later was 
chosen a member of the Board of Educa- 
tion, of which body he served as President. 



He entered commercial life with the finn 
of Park & Til ford, and later became man- 
ager of the cigar department in the Hotel 
Waldorf Astoria. For a time he conducted 
several stores on Broadway, anci afterwar<l 
wont into the real estate business. He is a 
member of the Mystic Tie I.-odgc. No. 123, 
Free and Accepted Masons; Cyrus Chap- 



332 



BIOGRAPHICAL CYCLOPEDIA 



ter, Royal Arch Masons; Pilgrim Com- 
mandery, No. i6, Knigiits Templar; Mecca 
Temple, A. A. O. N. of the Mystic Shrine ; 
Court West New York, Foresters of 
America; Hudson County Democratic 
Committee, and many political and social 
organizations. Mr. Auf Der Heide was re- 



elected to the Assembly for a third term by 
a plurality of 2,303 over S. Smith, the sec- 
ond highest candidate on the Republican 
ticket. In 1908, he served on the Commit- 
tees on Public Health, Stationery, Sinking 
Fund and State Prison. 



CHARLES MANDRED LUM 

CHATHAM AND NEWARK 



THE ancestry of Charles Mandred Lum 
is remarkable not only because of his 
being able to trace his lineage in a direct line 
to the earliest settlement of America, but 
because for six or seven generations back 
all of his direct ancestors were born within 
a dozen miles of the city of Newark. He 
was born in Chatham, Morris County, New 
Jersey, March 9, i860. His parents were 
Harvey M. and Phoebe J. S. (Bruen) 
Lum. His paternal grandparents were 
Samuel D. and Hamutal (Genung) Lum. 
His paternal great-grandparents were Is- 
rael and Patience (Pierson) Lum. In the 
paternal line he is a descendant of Samuel 
Lum, one of three brothers who came from 
England in the latter part of the seven- 
teenth century and settled in Connecticut. 
The family name, however, is of Scotch 
origin. Israel Lum, great-grandfather of 
the subject of this sketch, participated on 
the patriotic side in the American Revolu- 
tion. 

Through his mother, Mr. Lum is de- 
scended from John Bruen of Stapleford, 
Cheshire, England, who was baptized De- 
cember 25, 1606, and was a descendant of 
Robert le Brun, who came from Normundy 
to England in 1230. Obadiah Bruen, sec- 
ond son of John Bruen of Stapleford, emi- 
grated from England to Connecticut. His 
name appears in the Connecticut charter of 
1662. He removed to Newark, New Jer- 
sey with the Milford colonists in 1666, and 
his name appears second on the list of sub- 



scribers to the Fundamental Agreement. 
Through his mother, Mr. Lum also traces 
his ancestry to a Revolutionary soldier. 
His great-grandfather, Jonathan Chandler, 
born May 23, 1762, was a drummer boy in 
the patriot army, was captured by the Brit- 
ish, but on account of his youth was re- 
leased after spending some time in prison 
in New York. Immediately after being re- 
leased from prison, he rejoined the army, 
in which he performed good service. Mr. 
Lum's immediate maternal ancestors were : 
grandparents, Ashbel and Mary (Chand- 
ler) Bruen, and great-grandparents, Benja- 
min and Nancy (Harris) Bruen and Jona- 
than and Mary (Jewell) Chandler. 
Through his great-grandmother. Patience 
(Pierson) Lum, Mr. Lum is descended 
from the Reverend Abraham Pierson, the 
first pastor and so-called founder of New- 
ark. In deference to him, the first settlers 
named Newark after his home town in 
England. 

The plan of Mr. Lum's early education 
was outlined in preparation for a college 
course. He was fitted for admission to Co- 
lumbia College, and was graduated with 
honors in 188 1. He is a member of the Phi 
Beta Kappa Society. Mr. Lum takes an 
active interest in the aflfairs of his alma 
mater and is President of the class of 1881. 

Having decided to make the study and 
practice of law his life work, he entered the 
office of Guild & Lum, in Newark, and was 
admitted to the bar as an attorney in 1884, 



BIOGR.APHICAL CYCLOPEDIA 



333 



and as a counsellor in February, 1889. In 
that year he was admitted to partnership 
and has continued a member of that firm 
ever since, the style of the firm now being 
Lum, Tamblyn & Colyer, with offices in the 
Prudential Building, Newark. Mr. Lum's 
firm has been connected, on one side or the 
other, with much of the more important 
litigation which has been brought before 
the courts of Essex County, but he has de- 
voted most of his time to office practice, as 
counsellor. Energetic and earnest, and pos- 
sessing a natural, logical, legal mind, he has 
won an enviable position in his profession. 
He is counsel for a number of important 
enterprises and for numerous estates. 

He has been an active factor in the ad- 
vancement of his native town of Chatham, 
where he still makes his home. The cause 



of education has been greatly benefited by 
his influence. He is president of the 
Chatham Free Public Library, a position 
which he has occui)ied ever since its organ- 
ization as a public library ; he is president 
of the Chatham Fish and Game Protection 
Association ; president of the Chatham 
Board of Trade, vice-president of the 
Canoe Brook Country Club, trustee and 
vice-president of the New Jersey Historical 
Society, and a member of the Washington 
Society. He is chainnan of the Chatham 
Republican Committee, and a member of 
the Republican County Committee. 

Mr. Lum married. October 4, 1894, Eliz- 
abeth S. Kirkpatrick, daughter of Jacob H. 
and Sarah H. (Swinnerton) Kirkpatrick 
of Chatham. They have one child, a daugh- 
ter, Elizabeth Kirkpatrick Lum. 



ROBERT SPENCER TERHUNE 



NEWARK 



ROBERT SPENCER TERHUNE, a 
prominent member of the Newark, 
New Jersej', bar, was born in that city Oc- 
tober 12, 1871. He is a son of the late 
Albert Hammel and Gertrude Ann (Smith) 
Terhune. Albert H. Terhune, son of Al- 
bert and Mary (Southerland) Terhune, 
was born in Newark, New Jersey, Novem- 
ber 30, 1823. He acquired his education in 
the public schools of his native city and be- 
came a successful boot and shoe merchant 
from which business he retired in 1896. He 
was a soldier in the Civil War, serving in 
the Thirteenth New Jersey Volunteer In- 
fantry, and participated in a number of en- 
gagements, including Antietam and Fair- 
fax Court House. His death occurred in 
Newark, New Jersey, October 10, 1906. 
His widow survives in 1909 and resides 
with her son, Robert S. and two daughters, 
Florence A. and Helen E. Terhune. 

Robert S. Terhune, received his educa- 
tion in the public schools of Newark. He 



began the study of law in the office of Mal- 
com Mac Lear, now Judge of the District 
Court of Newark, and completed his law 
course in the New York Law School. He 
was admitted to the bar as an attorney in 
June, 1903, and has been successfully en- 
gaged in the i)ractice of his profession in 
the city of Newark, associated with John P. 
.Manning, ever since. In 1904 and 1905, 
he was Journal Clerk of the House of As- 
sembly. 

Mr. Terhune has been indentified with 
politics for the past ten years, casting his 
first vote for Benjamin Harrison for Presi- 
dent of the United States. He is a mem- 
ber of the Essex County Republican Com- 
mittee from the Eighth Ward of Newark, 
where he has been district leafier. .Nt the 
regular election in .November, 1909, he was 
elected to represent the Imaginary Assem- 
bly District. comi)rising the Eighth. Elev- 
enth and Fifteenth Wards, in the New Jer- 
sey Legislature. 



334 



BIOGRAPHICAL CYCLOPEDIA 



Mr. Terhune is counsel for three local 
building and loan associations, namely: 
the Public Building and Loan Association, 
the Modern Woodmen Building and Loan 
Association, and the Municipal Building 
and Loan Association, and is also a mem- 
ber of the Northern Republican Club, of 
which he is one of the auditors; the Re- 



publican Indian League, elective member 
of the Essex County Republican Commit- 
tee and member of the Lawyers' Club of 
Essex county. He is a member of Kane 
Lodge No. 55, Free and Accepted Masons, 
and the Newark City Camp, Modern Wood- 
men of America. 



SETH B. SMITH 

NEWARK 



SETH B. SMITH, one of Newark's 
prominent citizens, was born in Boon- 
ton, Morris County, New Jersey, February 
lo, 1868. When he was four years old his 
parents moved to Dover, New Jersey, 
where the boy remained for the next five 
years. His primary education was secured 
in the Public and Parochial Schools of 
Dover. In 1877, when he was only nine 
years of age he was brought by his parents 
to Newark, and has ever since resided in 
that city. At the age of twenty years he 
accepted a position with the General Fire 
Extinguisher Company of Providence, 
Rhode Island, and in the course of time his 
faithful services with that corporation 



gained for him the Superintendency in the 
State of New Jersey, which position he 
now retains. 

A Democrat in politics, he has been ac- 
tive in the afifairs of his party and devoted 
to public interests. In 1908, he was elect- 
ed a member of the Board of Aldermen of 
the City of Newark from the Sixth Ward 
and in that Board is a member of the Com- 
mittees on Poor and Aliens, Public Build- 
ings, Licenses, Elections, Weights and 
Measures, and Fourth of July Celebrations. 
He is a member of the John J. Gaynor As- 
sociation and the Knights of Columbus, and 
is President of the Sixth Ward Democratic 
Club of Newark. 



JOSEPH F. SMITH 

MILLVILLE 



JOSEPH F. SMITH, Mayor of the City 
of Millville, was born in Bridgeton, 
Cumberland County, New Jersey, Septem- 
ber 17, 1880. His father, Josiah F. Smith, 
was a veteran of the Civil War serving in 
Company K of the Twelfth Regiment of 
New Jersey Volunteers. His mother was 
Anna M. Smith. He was educated in the 
public schools of Millville, and began the 
study of law in the office of the Honorable 
Louis H. Miller in December, 1898. He 



was admitted to the New Jersey bar as an 
attorney in the November term of the Su- 
preme Court in 1903, and as a counselor- 
at-law in 1907. The Chancellor appointed 
him in 1908 an examiner and special mas- 
ter in Chancery. 

Ever since his admission to the bar he 
has been engaged in the practice of his 
profession. A Republican in politics he 
was elected Justice of the Peace in No- 
vember, 1901, at which time he had just at- 



BIOGRAPHICAL CYCLOPEDIA 



335 



tained his majority and had cast his first 
ballot at the polls. He was re-elected to 
this office in 1907. In November, 1907, he 
was elected Mayor of the City of Millville, 
and began his term of service the follow- 



ing January. He is a member of Millville 
Lodge. Xo. 580, Benevolent and Protective 
Order of Elks, Tuscola Tribe, No. 176, of 
the Improved Order of Red Men and Court 
Chamberlain of the Foresters of America. 



WILLIAM H. SPEER 

JERSEY CITY 



WILLIAM H. SPEER was born in 
Jersey City, New Jersey, October 21, 
1868. He was educated in Hasbrouck In- 
stitute in Jersey City and in Columbia Uni- 
versity in New York City. He studied law 
in the Columbia L'niversity Law School 
and in the office of John Linn in Jersey 
City. At the November term, 1891, he was 
admitted to the bar of New Jersey, and was 
made a counsellor-at-law in June, 1895. 

After being admitted to the bar he be- 
came a member of the firm of Linn & 
Speer, his partner being Clarence Linn, a 
son of John Linn. This partnership con- 
tinued for a number of years. Mr. Speer 
was twice vice-president of the Hudson 
County Bar Association and became its 
president in 1903. On February 8, 1903, 



having been appointed by Governor Frank- 
lin Murphy and confirmed by the Senate to 
the office of Prosecutor of the Pleas for 
Hudson county, he qualified as such and 
held the office until December 30, 1907, 
when he was appointed by Governor Ed- 
ward C. Stokes as a Circuit Court Judge to 
succeed Charles W. Parker. On January 
22, 1908. he was appointed for a full term 
by Governor Fort. 

Judge Speer has been active in politics, 
and is a member of the Republican party. 
.'\t the time of his appointment as Judge he 
was a member of the firm of Speer & Kel- 
logg, his partner being Frederick S. Kel- 
logg. His circuit comprises the county of 
Hudson. His term will expire in 1915. 



FRED WESLEY WENTWORTH 

PATERSON 



FRED WESLEY WENTWORTH, of 
Paterson, architect, was born in Box- 
boro, Massachusetts, August 22, 1864. He 
is a descendant in the eighth generation of 
Elder William Wcntworth, who came to 
this country from England in 1638 and set- 
tled in Exeter, New Hampshire. The line 
of descent is as follows: Elder William (i), 
Ephraim (2), Ephraim (3), Ephraim (4), 
Jonathan (5), Stephen C6), William 
Trickey (7), and Fred Wesley (8). From 
Elder William Wentworth, the emigrant 



ancestor, the family pcfligrcc is traceable in 
a direct line through twenty-eight genera- 
tions to the Norman Conquest. In the 
times of William the Conqueror, according 
to the Domesday Book, that most ancient 
register of the hereditary landed aristocracy 
of England. Rcginalfl de Wynterwadc was 
in possession of the lordship of Wentworth 
in the Wopentake of Stafford in the West 
Riding of Yorkshire. The place is thus 
referred to in the "Magna Britannica," pub- 
li.shed about 1800. 



336 



BIOGRAPHICAL CYCLOPEDIA 



"The family of Wentworth hath long 
flourished in this place. They have been of 
the degree of knights for six hundred years, 
and were settled in this country four hun- 
dred years before that, in all likelihood in 
this town. As it is the ancient and chief 
seat of the noble family, so, from hence, all 
others of this name are descended, as ap- 
pears by a pedigree preserved here." 

Fred W. Wentworth's father, William 
Trickey Wentworth, was born in Hiram, 
Oxford County, Maine, April ii, 1832. He 
married Lucinda Phipps MacDonald, born 
in Chatham, New Hampshire, January 13, 
1829. Her parents were Frederick South- 
gate and Susan (Abbott) INIacDonald. In 
his MacDonald line Mr. Wentworth de- 
scends from the ancient Scottish clan Mac- 
Donald. His maternal grandfather, Fred- 
erick Southgate MacDonald, was a lead- 
ing citizen of the town of Chatham, serv- 
ing as Justice of the Peace, Selectman, and 
for many years as Town Clerk. In early 
life Mr. Wentworth's father removed from 
Maine to Dover, New Hampshire, where 
he became the proprietor of a considerable 
landed property known as Long Hill Farm, 
and where, with his wife, he still resides. 
He is one of the most substantial men of 
that locality and has always been conspicu- 
ous in its public affairs, having held the of- 
fices of Selectman, School Commissioner, 
Alderman, and, for two terms, representa- 
tive in the New Hampshire State Legis- 
lature. He has recently been elected Coun- 
ty Commissioner. 

As already noted, the younger Mr. 
Wentworth was born in Boxboro, Massa- 
chusetts, where his parents were tempor- 
arily residing at the time. He was reared 
at the parental home in New Hampshire, 
and received his early education in the 
country school of the neighborhood. Later 
he attended the Dover Grammar and High 
Schools, being graduated from the latter in- 
stitution in 1883. He then took the full 
course of the Chandler Scientific Depart- 
ment of Dartmouth College, where he was 
graduated with honors in 1887. He was 



one of the founders of the Casque and 
Gauntlet Senior Society of Dartmouth, 
which has since become the strongest and 
most popular students' fraternity of that 
college. After completing his collegiate 
education he came to New York City and 
entered upon a course of practical prepar- 
ation for his chosen career, being employed 
for six years in the offices of prominent 
metropolitan architects. In 1893 he es- 
tablished himself as an architect in Pater- 
son, where he at once became known as a 
man of exceptional ability in his profes- 
sion. Almost immediately the commission 
to erect the Passaic Hospital building was 
awarded to him, and in a very brief time he 
found himself in the enjoyment of a high- 
ly select patronage. Among the structures 
of various kinds which have been built un- 
der his direction may be mentioned the 
People's Bank and Trust Company build- 
ing of Passaic, the Young Men's Christian 
Association building of Passaic, the New 
York and New Jersey Telephone Exchange 
buildings of Paterson and Passaic; "Essex 
House", the beautiful colonial residence of 
the Honorable John W. Griggs ; the resi- 
dences of James Hinchcliffe, M. H. Ellen- 
bogen, and James Simpson, all of Pater- 
son ; the palatial residence of Kimball C. 
Atwood in Oradell, New Jersey ; and the 
fine residences of General Bird W. Spencer 
in Passaic and Quartermaster-General 
Richard A. Donnelly in Spring Lake. He 
was superintendent of construction on the 
recently completed Federal building in the 
City of Paterson, and had charge of the 
work of constructing the buildings on the 
ground of the New Jersey State Camp. 

Mr. Wentworth enjoys a reputation for 
originality and sustained executive in the 
more refined branches of his profession and 
also for eminent artistic excellence in con- 
structive design. The marked success which 
he has attained during the brief period of his 
independent professional work is essentially 
tlie result of general appreciation of these 
qualities. He thus occupies a position of 
well recognized prominence in the archi- 



BIOGRAPHICAL CYCLOPEDIA 



337 



tectural profession in the State of New 
Jersey. He is an associate of the Ameri- 
can Institute of Architects, and a member 
of the New Jersey Chapter of the Ameri- 
can Institute of Arcliitects, the New Jersey 
State Rifle Association, the North Jersey 
Country Club, the Tourist Club of Pater- 
son, the Hamilton Club of Paterson, the 



Acquackanonck Club of Passaic, and of 
Ivanhoe Lodge, No. 88, Free and Accepted 
Masons. He owns a handsome residence 
in East Twenty-sevcntli street, Paterson. 
He married, July 9, 1893, Florence Agnes 
Maria Hurlburt, daughter of DeWitt Clin- 
ton and Fannie P. (Torrey) Hurlburt, of 
Georgia, Vermont. 



CLARENCE AUGUSTUS LEONARD 



NEWARK 



CLARENCE AUGUSTUS LEON- 
ARD, one of the active merchants of 
Newark, was born in that city, January i, 
1857. He is the son of Theodore and 
Francis E. (Kearny) Leonard, the former 
born in Philadelphia and the latter in 
Newark. 

Mr. Leonard was educated in the public 
schools of his native city, and after acquir- 
ing his education entered the employ of 
Parker and Mackin, a well-known banking 
fitrm at that time. Remaining with this con- 
cern until its failure in 1873, he was con- 
nected with the Merchant's National Bank 
for the ensuing two years. In the fall of 
1875, he became connected with the firm 
of P. Lorillard & Co., manufacturers of to- 
bacco, where he remained until 1899. When 
he resigned from that company on account 
of ill health in 1899, '^^ was vice-president 
and treasurer. Two years after in 1901, 



he became secretary and treasurer of the 
Automatic Weighing Machine Com])any, 
with which company he has ever since been 
connected. 

Mr. Leonard is a Republican in his politi- 
cal affiliations, but he has never been active 
in public affairs. He is president of the 
Newark Mutual Benefit Building and Loan 
Association, and Secretary and Treasurer 
of the Posterity Company. He is a mem- 
ber of the New Jersey Historical Society, 
the Union Club, and the Baltusrol Golf 
Club. He has been twice married, first to 
Jennie Allen, daughter of James and Au- 
gustus .Allen. She died in 1889, leaving one 
son, .Allen W. Leonard. Mr. Leonard 
married, second, Nellie T. Elcox, daughter 
of Harry and .Ann Elco.x, and by this wife 
has three children. Henrj' E., Clara A., and 
.Mine G. 



JOHN WILLIAM HUEGEL 

NEWARK 



JOHN WILLIAM HUEGEL connect- 
ed with the Feigenspan Corporation, 
was born in Newark, New Jersey, .August 
18, 1871. He is the son of John H. and 
Josephine Huegel. His elementary educa- 
tion was secured in St. Peter's Parochial 



School, and in St. Benedict's College. 
Having completed his education, he en- 
tered upon a business career in the employ 
of the corporation, with which he is still 
connected. He has taken much interest in 
public affairs and was a member of the 



338 



BIOGRAPHICAL CYCLOPEDIA 



Common Council in 1908 and 1909. In 
1909 he was elected a member of the Leg- 
islature which begins its session in 1910. A 
man of strong social instincts, he is a 
member of several benevolent and frater- 
nal organizations, among them being 



Council No. 150, Knights of Columbus, 
the Royal Arcanum, and the Heptasophs. 
He is President of the Pride of Newark 
Building and Loan Association, and a 
member of other organizations of that 
character. He married Isabel Reble. 



JAMES CHARLES CALVERT 

ELIZABETH 



f AMES CHARLES CALVERT, a de- 
J scendant of the celebrated Calvert fam- 
ily of Maryland, which was conspicuously 
identified with the colonial history of that 
State, was born in Baltimore Maryland, No- 
vember 26, 1861. His parents were Charles 
Wilbur Fisk and Elizabeth Cooper (Gra- 
ham) Calvert. He received his education 
in the public schools and in the Central 
High School of Philadephia, Pennsylvania, 
and in 1882 began his business career with 
the Singer Manufacturing Company in 
Elizabethport. A Republican in his po- 
litical affiliations, he has been active in 
public affairs, having been Secretary and 
Chairman of the Republican City Commit- 
tee of Elizabeth, and Secretary, Treasurer 
and Vice-Chairman of the Union County 
Republican Committee, which last position 
he now holds in 1909. In May 1896, he 
was appointed Clerk of the Elizabeth Dis- 
trict Court, and was re-appointed to the 
same position in May 1901. He was ap- 



pointed County Clerk of Union County on 
November 6, 1904, and was re-elected to 
that position November 2, 1909. 

Mr. Calvert is a member of Court Co- 
lumbus No. 920, Independent Order of 
Foresters, of the Benevolent Protective 
Order of Elks, the Veteran Volunteer 
Firemen of Elizabeth and many other so- 
cial and fraternal organizations. As a 
representative to the Supreme Court of 
the Independent Order of Foresters, he 
has travelled extensively in all parts of the 
United States and Canada. 

On February 7. 1888, Mr. Calvert mar- 
ried Honora Bradley, daughter of Denis 
and Honora Bradley, both of whom were 
natives of Ireland. He has five children, 
Irene M., born November 11, 1888; Nellie 
B., born September 17, 1891 ; Charles Ce- 
cil, born July 16, 1893 ; Ruth, born Au- 
gust 19, 1896, and Dorothy, born Novem- 
ber 4, 1898. 



DAVID DODD CHANDLER 

NEWARK 



DAVID DODD CHANDLER, health 
officer of the City of Newark, was 
born August 25, 1854, in Caldwell, New 
Jersey. He is the son of the late Albert 
Stull and Eunice (Bond) Chandler. His 
paternal grandfather, David Dodd Chand- 



ler, was well and favorably known as a 
hotel man in Essex County, New Jersey. 
At one time he was proprietor of the Ross 
House, which stood near the No. i Fire 
House, both of which have since then been 
destroyed. In later life, Mr. Chandler be- 





^:^<><*^ 



^X- 



e-^ 



BIOGRAPHICAL CYCLOPEDIA 



339 



came the successful and popular proprietor 
of the Park House, which stood in New- 
ark where Proctor's Theatre now is. Upon 
his death, his widow, Mary Sayre Chandler, 
continued the business, and it was under 
her efficient management that the Park 
House became one of the best known and 
most successful hostelries in New Jersey, 
entertaining in its day General Isaac Ward, 
Doctor John S. Darcy, Moses Bigelow, 
William B. Kinney, Mathias Ward, Henry 
William Herbert and Colonel Alvan Hed- 
den and some of the most prominent per- 
sonages of the United States. 

David Dodd Chandler received his edu- 
cation first in the public schools, after 
which, at the age of sixteen he accompanied 
his father on a start for a trip around the 
world. This trip was broken by the death 
of his father in San Francisco, and the 
young man then returned home and supple- 
mented his public school education by a 
course in the Bryant and Stratton Business 
College. Then he was engaged for a time 
with the Metropolitan Insurance Company. 
In politics, Mr. Chandler is a Republi- 
can, and in 1884 upon the re-organization 
of the Board of Health, of Newark, he be- 
came clerk to the health officer, and two 
years later was promoted to the responsi- 
ble position of superintendent of the sani- 
tary force. In 1896 he succeeded to the 
highest position within the gift of the 
Board of Health — that of health officer — 
which he has held continuously ever since. 



He has, probably, the peculiar distinction 
of being the only health officer in the 
United States who is not a physician ; or at 
least, such instances, if they exist are very 
rare. His appointment was conferred by 
a board that was composed of non-parti- 
san leading physicians and citizens of 
Newark, solely upon the ground of his 
pre-eminent qualification to manage the 
office, and the honor was entirely without 
solicitation upon his part. His admirable 
adminstration of the office has received 
the warmest commendation of the State 
Board of Health. 

Mr. Chandler is a charter member of the 
Roseville Athletic Club, a member of the 
Lincoln Club, the New York Club, the 
North End Club, the Forest Hill Club and 
the Union Club, and belongs to the Epis- 
copal Church. From boyhood he has been 
a lover of out-door and athletic sports and 
for years played base ball with the Rose- 
ville Athletic Association, and in that pas- 
time he still finds great enjoyment, while 
his two sons are likewise inclined. He is 
a gentleman of fine presence and cour- 
teous manner and at all times affable and 
entertaining. He is a continuous con- 
tributor to charitable and other worthy 
causes. 

On September 10, 1882, he married 
Adelaide Rhoades Mariott, daughter of 
William and Mary A. (Rhoades) Mariott, 
and they have three children, Albert Fred- 
erick. David D., Jr., and Julia Adelaide. 



EUGENE VAN A. MAGEE 

FI(3B0KEN 



EUGENE VAN ARTSDALEN MA- 
GEE. of Hoboken, was born in 
Jamesburg, New Jersey, December 21, 
1852. He is the son of Joseph C. and and 
Elizabeth (\'an .\rtsdalcn) Magee and a 
grandson of Jonathan Magee and Daniel 
Van Artsdalen, and springs from a family 



whose members have long been active and 
prominent in the State. 

Mr. Magee was educated in Freehold 
Institute, Freehold, New Jersey, and for a 
time was in the First National Bank of 
Jamesburg. In 1871 he went to New York 
City, where he added to his practical 



340 



BIOGRAPHICAL CYCLOPEDIA 



knowledge of business affairs. He en- 
gaged in the business of clothiers' trim- 
mings in 1880, and so continued with 
marked success until 1894, when the death 
of his brother-in-law caused a change in 
his commercial relations. He then asso- 
ciated himself with his father-in-law, Wil- 
liam H. Harper, in the real estate and in- 
surance business in Hoboken, of which he 
is the manager and proprietor. This 
agency dates back to i860, and conducts 
an extensive business throughout Hudson 



county. Mr. Magee is an expert in all 
matters connected with real property and, 
whenever differences of opinion in respect 
to values arise, his judgment is accepted 
as final. He is a resident of East Orange, 
a gentleman of excellent social and finan- 
cial standing, and is held in much respect 
by all with whom he has business or per- 
sonal relations. He is a member of the 
Munn Avenue Presbyterian Church of 
East Orange. He married Minnie Har- 
per and has two children. 



JAMES FLEMMING 

JERSEY CITY 



JAMES FLEMMING, a prominent 
lawyer and influential citizen of Jersey 
City, was born in that city, January 24, 
1834. He always resided in the city of his 
nativity and was intimately connected with 
much of her life and better interests. He 
came of English ancestry, his father, James 
Flemming, having emigrated from Lam- 
worth, England, and settled in Jersey City 
about the year 1830. His grandfather 
sailed in the British navy under the great 
commander, Nelson, and was wounded in 
the battle of Copenhagen. His grand- 
mother was a West, and related to the Earl 
of Delaware. His mother, Alice Amy Edge, 
was a daughter of Isaac Edge, an English- 
man, who fled from England on account of 
his republican principles, coming to Amer- 
ica and settling in Jersey City about the 
year 1804. He served with the United 
States forces in the war of 1812. 

James I. Flemming, — or James Flem- 
ming, as he more commonly wrote his sig- 
nature, — supplemented the instruction he 
received in the public schools of his own 
city by a course in the New York High 
School, after which he entered upon the 
study of law in the office of E. B. Wake- 
man, a well known lawyer of Jersey City. 
He was admitted to the bar about the year 



1857, and immediately engaged in the prac- 
tice of his profession in connection with his 
preceptor, Mr. Wakeman. This relation 
continued about two years. He then 
formed a partnership with W. B. Williams 
which was likewise maintained for a period 
of about two years. From that time for- 
ward he conducted his business by himself 
up to a period of four years prior to his 
death during which he associated with him- 
self Joseph Anderson. 

Mr. Flemming enjoyed a large and re- 
munerative practice, and merited the re- 
spect and confidence of his fellow citizens 
for his manly stand in defence of their in- 
terests as opposed to the encroachments of 
grasping corporations and monopolies. He 
was placed on the Democratic ticket for 
representative, though he had formerly 
been accounted a Republican. In fact he 
was not inclined to partisanship, but 
found it more in consonance with his prin- 
ciples, and his earnest desire to promote 
the real interests of the community, to take 
a leading part in various independent and 
reform movements. Accordinglj lie was 
prominent and active in the Anti-Monopoly 
Union, and largely instrumental in securing 
the insertion of the taxation clause in the 
general railroad law. He was also one of 



BIOGRAPHICAL CYCLOPEDIA 



341 



the principal contestants against the fam- 
ous, or infamous "Bill 167," or water-front 
bill. Later he put forth efforts to secure 
a state control of the watersheds, a sub- 
ject of vital importance, as connected with 
the proper and healthful water supply for 
the cities of New Jersey. .Among the many 
important law cases in which Mr. Flem- 
ming was employed may be mentioned the 
Margaret Hoyan and the Smith-Bennet 
murder cases and the Vreeland-Beeland 
bond case, all of which were of especial 
public interest. In the last a fraudulent 
claim was defeated by Mr. Flemming's dis- 
cover)' and proofs of the fraud in the use 
of a revenue stamp of a particular issue. 
He died suddenly at his summer resi- 
dence at Monmouth Beach, New Jersey, 
October, 1894. In 1859 '^^ married Sara 



Latou, daughter of Robert Latou, of New 
York City, but a native of Scotland. Two 
daughters, and one son survive him. For 
many years he was a vestryman of Grace 
Episcopal Church of Jersey City, and pres- 
ident of the Cosmos Club. He was a good 
example of the able, solid, reliable, and 
public spirited citizen, whose presence was 
a conserving force, and a bulwark of jus- 
tice and truth for the city chosen as his 
home. 

Mr. Fleming was a man of literary tastes 
and extensive reading, and delivered occa- 
sional lectures upon literary subjects and 
travels. He made with his family three 
visits to Europe, during which he made a 
study of the principal cities and objects of 
interest. Many of his observations were 
embodied in letters to the press. 



JOHN HEMSATH, 

NEWARK 



M. D. 



JOHN HEMSATH, a popular and suc- 
cessful member of the medical profes- 
sion of Newark, was born in Zehner, Lu- 
zerne County, Pennsylvania, September 6, 
1872. He is a son of Henry and Elizabeth 
(Washburn) Hemsath. His father was 
born in Westphalia, Germany, and re- 
moved to New York City in 1841, subse- 
quently settling at Mauch Chunk, Penn- 
sylvania. There he became a contractor in 
large operations, and built the towns of 
Eckley, Drifton, Ui)per Lehigh, Jeddo. and 
Pond Creek. About 1854 he purchased an 
extensive tract of land in Zehner and per- 
manently located there. 

Both of Dr. Hemsath's parents were 
members of the Lutheran Church, and 
conspicuous for their active interest in 
church rriatters as well as in educational 
development. Tlieir large family of chil- 
dren were all brought up in the same reli- 
gious faith and were given a liberal educa- 
tion. Charles H. Hemsath became a Luth- 



eran minister in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, 
and State head of the Lutheran Board of 
Missions ; Samuel A. Hemsath became an 
attorney-at-law and is now retired ; and 
John Hemsath. subject of this sketch, be- 
came a physician. The daughters all mar- 
ried professional men, and occupy high 
social positions. The sons and daughters 
have carried out their parents' plan of ed- 
ucation, and a number of their children are 
now students in colleges and universities. 
Dr. Hemsath spent his early youth at 
his birthplace, and began his educational 
course at Mtihlenbcrg College at Allen- 
town, Pennsylvania. Thence he went to 
the University of Pennsylvania at Phila- 
delphia, and, after a two years' course in 
its Scientific Department, entered its Med- 
ical School, where he was graduated in 
1894. He began practice in the borough 
of Luzerne, but a few months later, in 
September, 1894, he removed to Newark, 



342 



BIOGRAPHICAL CYCLOPEDIA 



where he has since resided and practiced. 
He is a member of the New Jersey State 
and Essex County Medical Societies, of 
the Medical Society of the University of 
Pennsylvania, and of various alumni asso- 
ciations. Officially he has been connected 
with a number of clinics, and at the time of 
the present writing (1909) has been for 
fourteen years visiting surgeon at the 
Newark Eye and Ear Infirmary ; and he 
was also Assistant Surgeon at the St. 
Barnabas and St. James Hospitals. 

In politics Dr. Hemsath affiliated with 
the "New Idea" wing of the Republican 
party in New Jersey, whose object was to 
secure Legislative enactments establish- 
ing the principles of "Limited Franchises 
and Equal Taxation." He became a mem- 
ber of the Republican League, formed to 



promote the popular acceptance of those 
principles, and chairman of the Executive 
Committee of the Second Ward of the city 
of Newark. In 1896, an "ofif year" for the 
Republican party in New Jersey, he was 
induced to become a candidate for the 
lower house of the State Legislature, and 
was defeated by only eleven votes. 

Dr. Hemsath married in April, 1904, 
Elizabeth Powell Evans, a daughter of 
Thomas Evans, principal of the Public 
School in Freeland, Pennsylvania. Her 
mother was the daughter of William Pow- 
ell, a large owner of coal lands. Mrs. 
Hemsath, like her husband, received a lib- 
eral education, being graduated from 
Bucknell University, in Lewisburg, Penn- 
sylvania. Two sons, John and Henry, 
have been born of this marriage. 



WILLIAM HENRY BEIDELMAN 

NEWARK 



WILLIAM HENRY BEIDELMAN, 
Certified Public Accountant, is a 
resident of the City of Newark. He is of 
Dutch extraction on his father's side, being 
the son of Solomon and Maria Elizabeth 
(Sargeant) Beidelman. His mother was 
a native of the Delaware Water Gap. 

Mr. Beidelman was born in Newark, 
April 8, 1879, and his elementary education 
was received in the public schools of his 
native city. He was graduated from the 
high school in 1897. Subsequently he pur- 
sued his studies under private tutors, and 
for a time thereafter was associated with 
Frank G. Dubois in the early practice of 
the profession which he had adopted, that 
of accountant. For the purpose of secur- 
ing a practical knowledge of the details of 
different lines of business and professions, 
he gave his services to different manufac- 
turing, mercantile and professional con- 
cerns for several years. Thus he obtained 
a grasp of business affairs, and an intimate 



acquaintance with business methods, which 
was a sound foundation for his future pro- 
fessional pursuit. 

Opening an office in Newark in 1906, he 
quickly advanced to the front in his pro- 
fession, and a year later obtained his de- 
gree as a Certified Public Accountant in 
the State of New Jersey. In the time 
which has elapsed since then, he has built 
up for himself a very large clientile, num- 
bering among his clients many important 
business concerns, and corporations of 
that State. For these he acts as auditor 
and consulting accountant. Not yet satis- 
fied with his attainments and his success, 
in his chosen pursuit, and desiring to ac- 
quire greater efficiency therein, he has ap- 
plied himself for special instruction in the 
Newark University Board, a school of 
Commerce, Accounts and Finance. He is 
a member of the Board of Trade of New- 
ark and serves on the Committee of Coun- 
ty Affairs. His standing in his profession 



BIOGRAPHICAL CYCLOPEDIA 



343 



is shown by his membership as a Fellow 
of The Society of Certified Public Ac- 
countants of the State of New Jersey and 
also a Fellow in the American Association 
of Public Accountants. He is Secretary 



of the Indemnity Building and Loan Asso- 
ciation of Newark, and a member of the 
Knox Presbyterian Church of Kearny. He 
is also a member of the New Jersey Auto- 
mobile and jMotor Club. 



MARTIN BROSS 

NEWARK 



MARTIN BROSS, long prominent in 
the business life of Newark, and a 
factor in the Republican politics of Essex 
County, was a native of Germany, where he 
was born May 22, 1839, dy'"g '" Newark, 
January 24, 1909. He was a son of George 
Martin Bross and Sybill Henrietta Schnepf, 
and was descended from old and respected 
German families on both sides. He received 
his rudimentary education in his native 
country, but came to the United States as 
early as 1857, when he was eighteen years 
of age, locating in Newark, which then had 
a population of barely fifty thosuand, in 
which city he ever after made his home. 

During the greater part of his life Mr. 
Bross was engaged in the butchering busi- 
ness, in which he attained great success, 
liis energ}', progressiveness and business 
ability enabling him to build and retain a 
large and important trade. He was the 
founder of one of the original butcher 
routes whereby the "down neck" citizens 
were supplied with meat during the early 
fifties, and he conducted his business along 
enterprising lines that made it in the course 
of time one of the leading and best known 
concerns in Newark. In 1861, at the out- 
break of the Civil War, Mr. Bross was 
among the first to offer his services to the 
Government in defense of the L^nion, and 
he went to the front with the first seventy- 
five thousand troops as a member of the 
Twentieth Regiment of New York, that be- 
ing a German Turnverein regiment, with 
which command he had considerable active 
service and acquitted himself of his mili- 



tary duties with a gallantry and general 
credit that won him the praise and approval 
of his superior officers. 

Mr. Bross was always an earnest Repub- 
lican in his political views and took an ac- 
tive interest in the campaigns of his party, 
being regarded as one of the local leaders 
of the organization, his influence being 
strong and his services valuable to the 
cause. He was at one time the chairman of 
the German Central Committee and was a 
member of the County Committee for many 
years. His opinions were sought and carried 
weight in party councils, and he was prom- 
inent in party work in his section. In 1875 
he was the nominee of his party for .Mder- 
man in the Seventh Ward of his city, but 
was defeated. For a period of nine years 
he held the office of clerk of the Centre 
Market, in which ca])acity he served with 
intelligence and .satisfaction, and was super- 
intendent of the city stables at the time of 
his death. He was a representative New- 
ark citizen who possessed the esteem and 
confidence of all with whom he held rela- 
tions, and was public spirited to a note- 
worthy degree, being at all times ready to 
lend his aid and co-operation to every 
movement that promised to advance the 
welfare or material interests of the city. 

He was a man of warm sympathies, lib- 
eral in his charities, and his benefactions, 
quietly bestowed, were without niunbcr. He 
belonged to various local fraternal lodges 
and political clubs, holding membership in 
Diogenes Lodge, Free and Accepted Ma- 
sons, of Newark ; Teutonia Lodge, Indc- 



344 



BIOGRAPHICAL CYCLOPEDIA 



pendent Order of Odd Fellows ; Lincoln 
Post, Grand Army of the Republic; the 
Veteran's Association of the Twenty-sec- 
ond Regiment of New York; and the Sev- 
enth Ward Republican Club of Newark. 
He was interested in the Reliable Building 
and Loan Association, of his city, of which 
he was a ruling spirit, and he was also one 
of the organizers of the Fremont Verein, 
a German organization. He played an im- 
portant role in the upbuilding of the city 
and no man in Newark stood higher than 
he in general estimation. He was endowed 
with intelligence of a high order and was 
a man of exceptionally broad information. 
Mr. Bross married, April 21, 1861. 



Pauline Hoyer, daughter of Gottlieb Hoyer 
and Elizabeth Baumann. Two daughters, 
Matilda and Julia, born to this union, still 
survive. After the death of his first wife, 
he married, on August 18, 1872, Susan 
Schweinfurth, daughter of Christian 
Schweinfurth, and Katherine Pfenninger, 
by whom he was survived. Of this union 
there still survives one son, Martin G. and 
two daughters, Catharine and Henrietta. 
In his demise the city of Newark was de- 
prived of one of its best and most estimable 
citizens, a man whom his fellow citizens 
looked up to and who thoroughly merited 
the high repute in which he was so general- 
ly held. 



PETER H. JAMES 

JERSEY CITY 



PETER H. JAMES was born in New 
York City, February 10, 1875, ^"^ is a 
lawyer by profession. He has resided in 
Jersey City since about 1880, was gradu- 
ated from Public School No. i, Jersey City, 
and afterwards attended the Jersey City 
High School, graduating in the class of 
1893. In his early years he was engaged 
in business with his father, Simon James, 
one of the oldest mineral water manufac- 
turers, in Hudson County, New Jersey. 
Then he attended the New York Law 
School, from which he was graduated in 
1897, with a degree of LL.B. During the 
time he was in attendance at the Law 
School he was a law student in the office 
of the late Henry S. White, former United 
States District Attorney for the State of 
New Jersey, was admitted to practice at 
the New Jersey bar in June, 1897, and a 
few days later was appointed a Master in 
Chancery by the late Chancellor Alexander 
T. McGill, since which time he has been in 
active practice of his profession. 

Mr. James is a Democrat in his political 
affiliations. In 1908, he was elected a 



member of the Assembly from Hudson 
County. In the Assembly he served on the 
Committees of Labor and Industries, State 
Hospitals, Home for Feeble Minded Wo- 
men, and Bill Revision. He was re-elected 
to the Assembly for a second term in No- 
vember, 1909. Interested in military af- 
fairs, he was one of the organizers and 
was Captain of the two Cadet companies 
attached to the Fourth Regiment, National 
Guard, of the State of New Jersey from 
which Company B and Company L of this 
regiment were recruited. He is a veteran 
of the Fourth National Guard of the State 
of New Jersey, and is Colonel and Assist- 
ant-Inspector General of the Uniform 
Rank, Knights of Pythias of New Jersey, 
and in 1909 was commissioned Battalion 
Quartermaster and Commissary of the 
Fourth Regiment, of the National Guard 
of the State of New Jersey, with the rank 
of Lieutenant. He has had important busi- 
ness interests, being connected with the 
Commercial & Realty Company, the Tele- 
phone Company, the Gas Pressure Regu- 



BIOGRAPHICAL CYCLOPEDIA 



345 



lation Company, the National Hide and 
Tallow Company, the Hudson County Bot- 
tlers' Protective Association, the Mer- 
chants' Realty Company, the Newark 
Leather Company, and other corporations. 
Mr. James belongs to many fraternities 
and other organizations, among them be- 
ing Highland Lodge No. 80, Free and Ac- 
cepted Masons Thirty-second Degree 
Scottish Rite Masons, Mecca Temple, 
Mystic Shrine, Knights of Pythias, New 
Jersey Lodge No. 211, Benevolent Protec- 
tive Order of Elks, the Progress Cliih, the 



Robert Davis -Association, the Pontiac 
Club, the New Jersey Consistory Associa- 
tion, Charlott Chapter O. E. S., the New 
Jersey .\thletic Club, the University of the 
State of New Jersey, the Jersey City 
Board of Trade, the Business Men's 
League, and the Jackson Democratic .-Vs- 
sociation. He belongs to the Temple Beth 
El, and is interested in benevolent and 
philanthropic institutions, particularly the 
National I'arm .School of Philadelphia, the 
Hospital for Consumptives in Denver, Col- 
orado, and the Clara De Hirsch Society. 



HENRY DOHERTY 

PATERSON 



HENRY DOHERTY, one of the prom- 
inent silk manufacturers of Paterson, 
was born in Macclesfield, England, Febru- 
ary 6, 1850. His parents were Henry and 
Jane (Yarwood) Doherty. His education was 
secured in his native city and early in life 
he became identified with the silk manu- 
facturing business. In that pursuit he be- 
gan at the foot of the ladder, and step by 
step advanced in the work until he attained 
to skill in the completion of the finest fab- 
rics. In the end, there was not a branch of 
the silk weaving industry in which he had 
not become proficient, and he was the mas- 
ter of this line of manufacture in every de- 
tail. 

Coming to this country when a young 
man of nineteen Mr. Doherty continued to 
follow the silk business and later, in 1879, 
with Mr. Joseph Warlsworth founded the 
firm of Doherty & VVadsworth, in Paterson, 
New Jersey. In 1901 he started an inde- 
jicndcnt silk manufacturing business in his 
own name which he incorporated in 1909 as 
The Henn,' Doherty Silk Company. Of 
that company he is president, and under his 
direction the corporation has attained the 
highest reputation, and Mr. Dohert)' is rec- 
ognized as one of the experts in his line of 



business in the L^nited States. His business 
occupation has been confined entirely to silk 
manufacturing. 

Politically he is associated with the Re- 
publican party and in 1892 was the Repub- 
lican candidate for Congress in the district 
in which he resides. He is a man of liberal 
thought and inclination, and has been iden- 
tified with charitable and benevolent enter- 
])rises, being particularly interested in 
everything that pertains to the welfare of 
ihc working men of the city with which he 
is identified. He was active in the work of 
securing the foundation of the Working 
Men's Institute, and his relations with the 
working men in his own establishment have 
always been of the most cordial character. 
He is a man of enterprise and of high char- 
acter and is held in the lx?st esteem by his 
fellow citizens and with all who come in 
contact with him. He is a member of the 
Hamilton Club, the North Jersey Country 
L'lub, and the Mecca Club of Paterson, and 
the Merchants' Central Club of New York, 
and the Japan Society of New York. 

In 1871. .Mr. Doherty married Annie 
Hough of Paterson, the dauglitcr of Samuel 
and Elizabeth (Hancock) Hough. The 
children of this union are William H. 



346 



BIOGR.\PHICAL CYCLOPEDIA 



Doherty, who is treasurer of the Henry 
Doherty Silk Company, and who married 
Clare R. Jones, his children being Ran- 
dolph, Douglas, and Henry 3rd; Harriet, 
who married Paul G. Schoonmaker of the 
firm of Schoonmaker & Hoering, of New 



York, their one child being Paul G. Schoon- 
maker, Jr. ; Henry D., Jr., vice-president of 
the Henry Doherty Silk Company, who is 
unmarried ; and Raymond D., secretary of 
the Henry Doherty Silk Company, who is 
also unmarried. 



JOHN F. FITZSIMMONS 

NEWARK 



JOHN F. FITZSIMMONS, a promi- 
nent business man of Newark, is a na- 
tive of that city where he was born June 25, 
1867. His grandfather, Hugh Fitzsim- 
mons, came with his family from Ireland 
and settled in Newark in 1839, becoming a 
successful mason contractor, who was uni- 
versally esteemed for his correct business 
methods and sterling qualities as a citizen. 
His entire business life was spent in New- 
ark, and he did not retire from active busi- 
ness until he was seventy years of age. He 
died at his residence in the Tenth Ward of 
Newark at the age of eighty-four years. 
His wife Rose Fitzsimmons died in New- 
ark at the family home at an advanced age. 
Matthew Fitzsimmons, the father of the 
subject of this sketch, was a native of Ire- 
land, and came to America with his parents. 
His early life was spent in Newark, where 
he acquired his education in private schools. 
Then he learned the trade of boiler maker. 
He died at the age of forty-three years, at 
the old homestead, where some members of 
the family still continue to reside. There 



his wife Mary (Wright) Fitzsimmons died 
at the age of sixty-seven years. 

John F. Fitzsimmons, son of Matthew 
and Mary (Wright) Fitzsimmons acquired 
his education in the public schools and in 
St. James Parochial School. At the age of 
seventeen, he engaged in the butcher busi- 
ness, and in 1893 established himself in 
business on his own account. In this he has 
continued successfully until the present 
time (1909), being at the same location, 
No. 57 Bowery, where he started when a 
young man. He is a member of the Royal 
Arcanum, the Knights of Columbus, the 
Road Horse Association of New Jersey, 
and the Harrigan Association. In 1909, he 
was elected a member of the Newark City 
Common Council from the Twelfth Ward 
and in that body is a member of several im- 
portant committees. He married in Octo- 
ber, 1897, Alice Brown, daughter of Joseph 
Brown, and they have seven children : Alice, 
Frances, Regina, John, Joseph, Agnes and 
Gertrude. 



JAMES McNEIL TRIMBLE 

MONTCLAIR 



JAMES McNEIL TRIMBLE, a lawyer 
of high attainments, rich promise, and 
delightful personality, was born in Newark, 
New Jersey, November 22, 1847. He was 
the only son of Henry William and Mary 



Jane Trimble. In his private and profes- 
sional life he manifested the combined 
characteristics of his Southern and New 
England ancestry. The Trimble family 
were esteemed residents of Charleston, 



BIOGR.\PHICAL CYCLOPEDIA 



347 



South Carolina, in the early part of the last 
century. The great-grandfather of James, 
— Thomas Trimble, — was a well-known sea 
captain in his day ; the grandfather, Charles 
Trimble, left Charleston in early boyhood, 
and settled in Oxford, Connecticut ; and the 
father, born in Oxford, left that town also 
in early youth and made his permanent 
home in Newark. James' grandmother on 
his father's side was a daughter of Phineas 
Johnson, who served during the entire per- 
iod of the Revolutionar>' War with the Con- 
necticut troops and was buried at Oxford. 
James' mother was Mary Jane McNeil, a 
native of Newark. 

Mr. Trimble was educated in the Newark 
High School in 1864 ; in the Newark Acad- 
emy in 1865 ; and in Williams College in 
1868. and then entered upon the study of 
law in Newark. In 1870 his father was ap- 
pointed by President Grant United States 
Consul at Milan, Italy, where he remained 
for six years, and during this period James 
resided with the family, holding the office 
of \'ice-Consul. While at Milan James not 
only acquired a practical proficiency in the 
Italian language, but became an enthusias- 
tic student of the national literature and 
arts, and a strong natural fondness for the 
Latin language was so intensified by his as- 
sociations and environments that he found 
a pleasurable diversion from his official du- 
ties in translating many of the writings of 
the early poets and other authors. An in- 
Ixjrn propensity to flights of fancy was also 
highly stimulated, and under this impulse 
he produced a number of original poems, 
of which Ho Theos Agonistes is especially 
noteworthy. 

On his return to Newark in 1876. Mr. 
Trimble resumed his legal studies and was 
admitted to practice at the bar of New Jer- 
sey in 1878, at the bar of New York soon 
afterward; and at the bar of the United 
States Supreme Court in 1906. Of him it 
may be truly said that he was thoroughly 
enraptured with his profession. He cared 
naught for politics or other official prefer- 
ments. In his political affiliations he was a 



Republican from the time he attained his 
majority till the nomination of James G. 
Blaine for the Presidency, when he united 
with and ever afterward remained in the 
Democratic party. This change was one of 
personal conscientious choice. He realized 
that it would cost him any political honors 
to which he might aspire ; but with him 
principle was stronger than policy, and he 
made the change without a regret. 

During his practice two incidents in par- 
ticular occurred that brought him conspicu- 
ously before a wide public and greatly in- 
creased his prestige. The reader will doubt- 
less recall that a few years ago the Italian 
Government after the assassination of King 
Humbert requested the United States Gov- 
ernment to undertake an investigation of 
the associations of anarchists in Paterson 
and West Hoboken, as Breschi, the assas- 
sin, was a resident of Paterson, and belong- 
ed to both these societies. The .American 
State Department referred the request to 
Governor Voorhees of New Jersey for ac- 
tion, and he selected and urged Mr. Trim- 
ble to make the investigation, because of 
his familiarity with the Italian language 
and people, and the respect and affection 
felt by them toward him. Despite the 
knowledge that he was taking his life in his 
hands in undertaking the commission, Mr. 
Trimble made a thorough personal investi- 
gation and became satisfied, and so report- 
ed, that the alleged plot had no existence. 
For this service he received the commenda- 
tion of both governments. Another, more 
recent and self-satisfying employment was 
that in bclialf of .Anna Wilentina, an Italian 
woman convicted of murder in Hackensack, 
New Jersey, whom he thrice rescued from 
the gallows. He took the case less than 
four days before the day set for her exe- 
cution, carried it from court to court up to 
the Supreme Court of the United States, 
( 1906) and finally after two years of ap- 
peals to the courts, secured a commutation 
of her sentence to imprisonment for life 
( 1907). The case attracted wide attention 
because of his pcrsistenc)', in defending 



348 



BIOGRAPHICAL CYCLOPEDIA 



this friendless woman, who was shown to 
have been "more sinned against than sin- 
ning;" and of all his Hfe work Mr. Trimble 
was proudest of this achievement. 

Mr. Trimble united with the South Park 
Presbyterian Church in Newark in boy- 
hood, went to the Second Presbyterian 
Church in the same city in early manhood, 
and in his later years was closely affiliated 
with the Unitarian Church of Montclair, 
where he resided from his marriage till his 
death on June 14, 1909. He was a member 
of the Benevolent Protective Order of 
Elks, the Royal Arcanum, the Essex Coun- 
ty Lawyers' Club, and the High School 
Alumni Association. He was married in 
Summit, New Jersey, August 30, 1883, to 
Lucy Raymond Weeks, daughter of Robert 
Dodd Weeks, of Newark, and Elvira Je- 
rusha Crafts, of Whately, Massachusetts, 
and granddaughter of the Reverend Wil- 
liam R. Weeks, D. D., of Newark. Both 
the Weeks and Crafts families were settled 



in Massachusetts prior to 1636. Two sons 
were the issue of this union : Henry Weeks, 
born March 23, 1886, graduated from 
Princeton University June 15, 1909, a few 
hours after his father's death, and entered 
the Harvard Law School in September of 
the same year; and Rufus James, born Oc- 
tober 10, 1888, who left Princeton while a 
junior in 1908, and entered the actuarial 
department of the New York Life Insur- 
ance Company, leaving there in October, 
1909, to enter Columbia College to finish his 
course for the degree of B. A. 

Mr. Trimble was quick in speech and ac- 
tion, endowed with a clear analytical mind, 
and oratorical powers of a high order, 
wholly devoid of affectation, and in man- 
ners always polite, dignified, receptive, 
hearty and sincere. He was truly a philan- 
thropist of the noblest order, as he gave 
himself, his powers of mind and his time to 
those who needed ; and he was deservedly 
called "the lawyer of the poor." 



WILLIAM HARRIGAN 

NEWARK 



WILLIAM HARRIGAN, who in 1908 
was elected Sheriff of Essex County, 
New Jersey, for a term of three years, is a 
native of Ireland, born in Dublin County, Oc- 
tober 31, 1838. His father was Thomas Har- 
rigan and his mother Bridget Fiuan. He re- 
ceived his early education in Ireland, and 
coming to America at an early age. com- 
pleted his education in the common schools 
of New Jersey. Early in life employed in 
trucking, subsequently he became a dealer 
in horses and in 1873 started in the soda 
water manufacturing business, in which, in 
1909, he is still engaged. 

Interested in public affairs at an early 
period of his life, he served on the Essex 
County Road Board six years and was a 
member of the New Jersey Assembly con- 
tinuously from 1883 to 1887, and again in 
1893 and 1894. During the session of 1891 



and 1892, he was sergeant-at-arms of the 
Assembly. He also served two terms in the 
Board of Aldermen of Newark and was 
Tax Commissioner of that city. In 1909 
he was appointed Police Commissioner of 
Newark, being President of the Board. His 
term of service as sheriff began in 1908. 
During his legislative career he always took 
special pride in upholding the interests of 
the wage workers. He introduced the bill 
which became a law providing for the es- 
tablishment of Police and Fire Commission- 
ers in Newark, the operation of which law 
was left optional with the people and was 
afterwards approved by a strong popular 
vote. He married Elizabeth McNally and 
had six children. His wife and all his chil- 
dren except one daughter are no longer liv- 
ing. 



BIOGRAPHICAL CYCLOPEDIA 



349 



JOSHUA BRIERLEY 

NEWARK 



JOSHUA BRIERLEY, of Newark, is the 
son of Joshua and Ellen Brierley. and 
was born in England November 27, 1856. 
He comes from an old family, who were 
largely farmers, and whose sterling char- 
acteristics maintained for them a high place 
in the community. Mr. Brierley is a self- 
educated man, his boyhood days being de- 
voted to work to the exclusion of any regu- 
lar attendance at school. He improved his 
opportunities, however, and by persever- 
ance gained a practical knowledge of men 
and affairs as well as a tliorough mastery 
of his profession. 

.As a boy, Mr. Brierley entered the em- 
ploy of John Bright & Brothers, of Lan- 
cashire, England, in the cotton weaving de- 
partment of that concern, after which he 
started in the undertaking business in 
which he has been continuously engaged. 
and, during t!ie past quarter of a century 
in the city of Newark. He has always 
.stood in the front rank of undertakers and 
embalmers, and at No. 402 Broad Street, 
Newark, are the finest parlors and mortu- 
ary chapels to be found in the state. 

Mr. Brierley is enterprising and progres- 
sive, active in advancing the profession 



which he has honored, and loyal to all the 
obligations of a public spirited citizen. He 
is a member of Northern Lodge Free and 
Accepted Masons, the Odd Fellows, the 
Knights of Pythias, the Knights of Honor, 
the Royal Arcanum, the Foresters, the 
Sons of St. George, the Heptasophs, and 
other organizations. He has been active and 
fearless in his political affiliations, the 
same degree of honor and aggressiveness 
having characterized his every action in this 
particular as in his business and social re- 
lations. He was a Board of Health com- 
missioner for a term of three years; presi- 
dent of the first Parents' .Association of 
the Franklin .School ; and is now, in T909, 
president of the Federation Association, 
and vice-president of the Eighth Ward Im- 
provement Association. In 1905 Mr. Brier- 
ley was a candidate for the mayoralty of 
Newark on the Independent Democratic 
ticket. He personally defrayed all the ex- 
penses of liis campaign but was defeated. 
He married. June 1882. Ellen Greenwood, 
and three children have been born to them ; 
Beatrice, James Gladstone, and Elvcna G. 
Brierley. 



JOHN INSLEY BLAIR 

BLAIRSTOWN 



JOHN INSLEY BLAIR, born at Foul 
Rift, a landing-place on the Delaware, 
two miles below Belvidcre, New Jersey, Au 
gust 22, 1802, was descended from the 
Blairs of Blair-.Athol, Perthshire. Scotland. 
Representatives of the family came to 
America as early as 1720, and settled in 
Pennsylvania and New Jersey. Among 
them were two lads, brothers, Samuel and 
John Blair, both of whom were educated 



in the Log College on the Neshaminy under 
the celebrated William Tennant. They be- 
came distinguished ministers of the Pres- 
byterian Guirch. Tlie Reverend Samuel 
Blair was called to Fagg's Manor in Ches- 
ter County, Pennsylvania, in 1739, where, 
in conjunction with his pastoral work, he 
conducted a school that was among the 
most noteworthy of the early Presbyterian 
academies. His son, also the Reverend 



350 



BIOGRAPHICAL CYCLOPEDIA 



Samuel Blair, was pastor of the old South 
Church in Boston before the Revolution. 
He became Chaplain of the Pennsylvania 
Battalion of Riflemen that participated in 
the siege of Boston. The Reverend Samuel 
Blair, the second, was offered the presiden 
cy of the College of New Jersey, (Prince- 
ton), but declined in favor of Dr. Wither- 
spoon. The Reverend John Blair was or- 
dained pastor of Big Spring, Middle Spring, 
and Rocky Spring in the Cumberland Val- 
ley in 1742, but resigned in consequence of 
the frequent Indian incursions on the fron- 
tier, 1755-57, and succeeded his brother at 
Fagg's Manor. In 1767 he became Profes- 
sor of Divinity and Moral Philosophy at 
Princeton, and was acting President of the 
College until the accession of Dr. Wither- 
spoon in 1769. He died in Wallkill, in the 
New York Highlands, in 1771. 

While one branch of his family was de- 
voting its energies to the work of the min- 
istry, and the dissemination of knowledge, 
another was molding the commerce which 
has since become one of the mainstays ot 
the State of New Jersey. In the latter part 
of the eighteenth century another Samuel 
Blair was sent by a Philadelphia firm to 
take charge of the iron industry at Oxford 
Furnace, in Warren County, New Jersey. 
This Samuel Blair was John I. Blair's great- 
grandfather. Three generations of the fam- 
ily were engaged in the development and 
management of this enterprise, and it was 
while Mr. Blair's father was settled at Foul 
Rift, attending to the shipping of the ore 
from Oxford Furnace, that John I. Blair 
was born. 

When Mr. Blair was a mere lad his fath 
er removed to a farm of some five hundred 
acres, a few miles from Oxford Furnace, 
on a small stream called Beaver Brook, and 
it was here that his youth was passed. At 
the age of eleven years he started life as a 
clerk in a country store at Hope, a village 
some six miles from home. The death of 
his father recalled him, at the age of four- 
teen, to the management of the farm; he 
becoming the mainstay of his mother, who 



was left a widow, with ten children to care 
for, John I. being the third of seven sons. 
As soon as possible he resumed mercantile 
life at Hope, where he remained till the 
year 1819. During this period he passed 
one year in the service of Squire James 
Dewitt, where, being brought into close con- 
tact with the forms and proceedings of law, 
the method of collecting debts, compromis- 
ing suits, and the drawing of legal papers, 
he derived much practical knowledge of 
business. 

At the age of seventeen Mr. Blair estab- 
lished himself in business at Blairstown, 
New Jersey, then known as Gravel Hill. In 
conjunction with his cousin, John Blair, he 
started a general country store. The part- 
nership lasted only two years, John I. Blair 
purchasing his cousin's interest in the bus- 
iness. For forty years Mr. Blair devoted 
himself to mercantile pursuits, constantly 
extending his business until it covered all 
the northern part of New Jersey, and 
reached far into Pennsylvania and New 
York. While engaged in merchandising, 
Mr. Blair's attention was attracted to the 
importance of railroad construction for the 
development of the resources of the iron 
and coal regions of New Jersey and Penn- 
sylvania, and he devoted much of his ener- 
gy and capital to building the Delaware, 
Lackawanna & Western Railroad, 1851-59. 
The breaking out of the Civil War rendered 
this road one of the most prosperous in the 
country. Its profits were so great that its 
stock, the par value of which was $50, rose 
from 54 in i860, to 230 in 1864. The road 
has always been one of the leading lines for 
carrying coal from the mines to the sea- 
board, and it enabled ]\Ir. Blair to acquire a 
fortune variously estimated at from $20,- 
000,000 to v$40,ooo,ooo. Although he met 
with great losses during his long business 
career as well as acquired vast profits, he 
never worried over his reverses, nor was 
unduly elated over his gains. 

In his early mature years Mr. Blair wa^ 
an ardent Whig; when, after the disruption 



BIOGRAPHICAL CYCLOPEDIA 



351 



of the Whig party, the time was ripe for 
the formation of the Republican party, he 
was among the first to cast his fortunes 
with the new movement. In the National 
Convention in Philadelphia, in 1856, it was 
mainly through his influence that New Jer- 
sey obtained the honor of naming the can- 
didate for the second place on the ticket, in 
the person of one of her sons, William L. 
Dayton. 

For many years Mr. Blair attended every 
National Convention of the Republican par- 
ty, either as representative of his district, 
or as a delegate-at-large. In the Conven 
tion that nominated Abraham Lincoln at 
Chicago, in i860, he exerted his influence in 
Mr. Lincoln's behalf so eflfectively that 
New Jersey was among the first of the 
Eastern States to drop her favorite candi- 
date, and start the stampede in support of 
the Western rail-splitter. Not only was he 
always faithful to the principles laid down 
in the platform of his party, and thus al- 
ways true to its standard-bearer, but he was 
also an intimate friend of President Lin- 
coln, and one of his trusted advisers on all 
financial questions. At one time his name 
was favorably mentioned in connection with 
the office of Secretary of the Treasury. 
Mr. Blair's faith in the ultimate success of 
American institutions never wavered, even 
in the djirkest days of the war, and when 
Jerseymen were advising her to follow her 
sister States of the South in their effort to 
destroy the Union, and writing letters urg- 
ing action in that direction, he was lending 
the Government money to assist it in the 
struggle for existence. One of his loans to 
the Government was over one million of 
dollars ; when his associates in business ob- 
jected to what they consider an unwise and 
foolhardy procedure, he asked, "What 
would be the value of all our securities if 
the Government should be destroyed?" 



Mr. Blair never became a politician, in 
the popular sense of that term. He had 
not the time to be more than a true patriot. 
His business ventures (and he never specu- 
lated) occupied his time fully. He took an 
interest in politics only so far as his firm 
beliefs in the principles underlying our Gov- 
ernment and the extension and growth of 
the nation commanded his attention. Firm- 
ly believing in the principle of protection 
to American industry, he always found time 
to advocate, with all the energj' for which 
he was noted, the faith that was in him. 
Only once in his life did Mr. Blair enter the 
arena of politics. This was as a candidate 
for the governorship of his native State, in 
1 868. The contest was a very close one, 
many per.sons claiming that he was counted 
out by fraud ; yet, by his friends, his defeat 
was considered a blessing in disguise, as he 
was thus left to continue his favorite work 
of opening up the territory of the West, 
through the agency of his system of rail- 
roads, which will ever be considered his 
life-work. 

Mr. Blair's married life was a very happy 
one. In 1826 he married Nancy Locke, the 
daughter of John Locke, whose father. Cap- 
tain Locke, a soldier of the American Rev- 
olution, was killed in a skirmish at Spring 
field, in Morris County, New Jersey. Mrs. 
Blair died in 1888. Their children were 
Marcus L., DeWitt Clinton, Emma L., wife 
of Charles Scribner, the New York pub- 
lisher, and Aurelia, wife of Clarence G. 
Mitchell, lawyer. DeWitt Clinton is the 
only child living. 

Mr. Blair lived to a ripe old age, en- 
joying the evening of his days in the 
retirement of his home, in democratic 
simplicity, in the same house that he occu- 
pied for over seventy years, with all his 
faculties unimpaired to the last. 



















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